NOT: The Bad Company
by Phantom105
Summary: This rag-tag team never backs down from a challenge, an always lives on the wild-side of a mission. Dysfunctional, cocky, daring, and sometimes obnoxious, these five always get the job done. T for gore/course language
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! :D Sorry for inactivity lately, just haven't felt much like writing. For those waiting on some other titles, don't worry, they are not going away! The will be finished, promise.

Welcome to _N.O.T: The_ _Bad Company!_ This fic is loosly based off of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. More accurately, it's based off of a squad I am involved in on the game. I took all of our personalities and some of the things that have happened to us while playing the game, and loaded them all into a storyline that I actually came up with while writing a required journal entry on the first day of school. Starts off more as a horror story, which I was drawing off of _I Am Legend_ for support, and then fades into being more like _A Team_. Just a shoutout to mah noobs, guys you're all awesome, and here's to more awesome adventures in the world of BC2!

_I don't own Bad Company 2, I Am Legend, or A team. All are awesome though, go get them. I don;t own any of the weapons mentioned in this fic either, I had nothing to do with them (though i wish an M1A2 would drop me off for Senior Prom :/ Total baws)._

_Enjoy_

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><p>The forest around them was completely silent. The sunlight was blocked by the trees above, leaving them in a darkened area. Fog blanketed the ground, making it even harder to see what may be lurking in the shadows.<p>

It was an unlikely place for two men to be wandering around alone.

The two were highly alert, eyes constantly scanning the area around them. Being so in-tune with their senses and the state of mind they were in, it was sometimes hard to distinguish a threatening noise from a harmless one. But if there was one thing these two were good at, it was keeping cool and focused in potentially intense situations.

The air was thick between them, so thick that it became almost tangible. Neither wanted to break the silence that lingered between them. Any type of unneeded noise could potentially give their position away.

The two squad members stepped over large piles of fallen leaves and logs on the forest floor, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Their footfall was tense and silent.

The two gasped heavily, quickly aiming their weapons towards the top of a tree towards a sound. The first sighed, relaxing his arms, almost with disappointment.

"It's only an owl, chill out Dylan," the first man, Kyle, said to the other man behind him. He wore a tan colored camouflage combat uniform, consisting of a helmet, orange-tinted goggles, a face mask, bullet proof jacket, as well as matching pants, gloves, and combat boots. Around his waist was a heavy belt with various compartments. It held an M9 pistol, as well as a "pineapple" grenade. He had the facemask down around his neck, making it easier to breathe steadily and to keep quiet, and the goggles were put up around the helmet to keep from covering his eyes. If he was to use his eyes' full potential, the goggles only served to hinder him. Strapped onto his back was an M4 rifle, in case the need arose.

He turned back to the other, "you're making me more nervous than what's out there."

Silently, he gripped the weapon in his leather-clad hands tighter.

"Well if you wouldn't startle the whole forest, I wouldn't have responded to you," Dylan shot back. He wore much of the same thing, including the gloves, boots, and combat uniform, except instead of a helmet he wore a billed hat. He also carried a large backpack, and a much larger gun. His backpack consisted of various medical supplies, including medical kits, a defibrillator, and other medical tools that could be useful. He also carried resupplies of ammunition for their weapons.

On both of their hands, they had a small leather covering on their first fingers and thumbs. When activated, it showed the results from a sensor ping, revealing enemy positions to them. Unfortunately, the heavy trees and other debris was making it hard to reveal them. For the most part, they were having to rely on sight and sound alone.

Kyle activated his screen. Forming an "L" with his two fingers, a small square screen can into existence. It showed a grid colored in a pale blue. A single white dot off to the top right of the screen had white waves coming off it, signaling the motion sensor itself. The waves crawled across the screen, failing to reveal any red dots. The only dots on the screen were themselves, marked by two green dots.

"No movement, which means you can put the gun down," Kyle said, closing his fingers and making the screen disappear.

Dylan gave him a snide look. "Yeah, well, you're adopted," he replied, lowering the XM8 light machine gun in his hands.

"Is that the only response you have to anything?" Kyle asked him, turning to the man.

"No, I have more, that's just my favorite," he replied, pushing past Kyle. He sighed, figuring there was nothing he could do to help his comrade's overused come-backs. He continued on behind him, following in a line.

Suddenly, Kyle stopped, attention drawn to a print in the dirt. It was well-defined and very easy to spot, even in these low-light conditions. He studied it closely, kneeling down to get a closer look. It looked human, but was it one of the infected? Or was it a survivor? There was no way to tell, other than to find them, which was not something either of them wanted to do.

Then, a sound from the forest again. This one was swift and strong, almost pushing a large branch over.

"What was that?" Dylan gasped, quick to aim his gun at the sound.

"It's not girl scouts selling cookies, that much is for sure," Kyle replied back, shotgun in hand, ready to attack. He stood up, looking around. Quickly he checked his scanner. It revealed a fast moving red dot, coming straight for them. The angry alarm from the device blared suddenly, signaling to an imminent close encounter. His eyes widened.

"Behind you!" Dylan suddenly yelled, whipping the large gun around towards it. The dark figure was closing fast on their position. It was upright, eyes glowing red. Its mouth was open, screaming at the two in front of it. Within a split second, Kyle turned around, aimed the gun, and fired off multiple rounds. The loud blasts from the shotgun rang through the forest, echoing in the thick fog. The creature shrieked with anger and pain. It struggled to stay on two feet, falling to the ground and losing to its badly damaged body. It graveled on the ground, trying to move towards the two men, but it was no use. With one final shot to the head, Dylan finished it off quickly.

The two stood there, breathing heavily. Neither could believe what had just happened, or how close it had been.

"What the fuck just happened?" Kyle asked in a hushed tone. Dylan looked to him, a sarcastic look plastered on his face.

"Dude! We got attacked by one of those zombie things!"

Kyle looked back at him, a smug look showing from under his helmet. "I know that much," he answered, turning to mumble something under his breath.

They stood, looking at the creature on the ground. It looked like a human with dark hair on its head and wearing torn up clothes, though its body was covered in wounds and blood was dripping from its mouth and nose. Its hands were covered in blood as well. Had it already gotten somebody?

"You think there are any survivors?" Dylan asked after a few moments of silence. Both looked back to the monster lying on the ground in front of them.

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><p><em>The syndrome had struck the Middle East like an iron fist. No one was immune to it, and it spared nothing. It turned men into monsters, giving them an incredible appetite for other humans. The disease was easily spread, resembling that of the Black Plague during the Middle Ages. It was swift and very potent. A single touch from an infected person could infect another. It was simply too fast, and most of the time people did not even realize they had been infected. Symptoms of the illness didn't show up until two to three days after one was contagious. First, a slight fever would hit, followed by body aches and tiredness. It had all the symptoms of a common Flu, but it was much more dangerous than that. Once the victim lost their appetite, their skin would start to itch uncontrollably. They would scratch and scratch, until they literally ripped the skin from their body. Insanity would soon set in, slowly washing away any memory or sense of morals they once had. Some were shot before they could hurt others, but this neither solved the problem nor sat well with those around.<em>

_A cure was never found._

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><p>"Doubt it," Kyle finally answered solemnly, turning to keep walking, eyes cast down. It was respect that kept him somber for the moment. He knew that people that were fighting for the same cause as he were dying or already dead. Neither man knew if there was anyone left from the camp they had come from.<p>

Were they the last ones that were still clean? Surely the entire world wasn't experiencing this, were they? It was hard to imagine that a plague of such power had massed, and even harder to believe that it had successfully taken out so many people. But they had been traveling for 6 days now, and had yet to find anyone that was not infected. Things were bleak indeed. If they were indeed the last humans alive, the rest of their lives would not be retirement, homes, or cars as they had planned. It would be spent living day-to-day, finding food and water, scavenging for weapons, and staying alive.

Dylan turned away from the creature on the ground, following the other man deeper into the forest. The two were silent for the next couple minutes as they trekked through the forest. It seemed to go on forever. There was very little light, and it was becoming harder and harder to make out shapes in the darkness. There was always a threat looming over them, and the challenge to them was to keep sane in the situation.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded. Both stopped immediately, and Dylan opened up the scanner on his hand. It showed a red dot moving fast towards them.

"We got an enemy closing fast, 12 o'clock," the man said to his comrade. Both backed up against a nearby tree, weapons pointing in the direction of the dot. Every noise, every creek of a branch, every sound of their breaths set them off.

A leaf fell softly in front of Dylan's face. He stared at it for a second, but his brain quickly put the pieces together. He looked up, seeing a glare of red high above him. It was perched on a tree branch in the high oak tree they were leaning on for support. He was frozen in fear, finding it impossible to tell Kyle that the threat was literally right above them. His breath was trapped in his throat.

"You see anything out there dude?" Kyle asked Dylan, turning to look at him over his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at his friend's odd expression. "Dude, you ok?"

"HOLY FUCK IT'S RIGHT ABOVE US!" Dylan was finally able to yell violently. The words came out so rushed, it was a shock to both of their systems. In a flash, the creature jumped down, leaving the branch and aimed to come down directly on top of them, roaring loudly. Both stood unable to move, everything was happening too fast. Dylan watched helpless as it got larger and larger in his view. There was no time to aim his large machine gun, and there was no time to warn Kyle about it either. They were completely helpless.

!111!111111!11111111!11!

Silently, high above the ground in a tree, she watched with eyes of an eagle. The dark, grass-camo ghillie suit made her invisible in the dense forest. The shreds of fabric laid like real leave and grass material, ensuring that nothing could see her.

The thrill of the hunt never ceased to excite.

Through the scope of the large SV-98 sniper rifle, she had locked onto the target. The barrel was long, reaching just over two feet, making the entire gun over four and half feet long. At the end of the barrel was a suppressor. She also had a bipod on it, making it easier to keep steady, and 12x scope for long-range ability. Though this gun as not a standard issue sniper, it worked fine. She had picked it up from a previous mission from someone who no longer needed it when her own M95 was out of ammunition.

The creature jumped from the branch, leaving it completely unprotected from a shot. Careful to line it up, the monster was directly in the middle of the crosshairs.

They didn't know it, but they were in no real danger at all.

"One shot," she mumbled quietly. Finger tightly on the trigger, she watched as it got closer and closer to her friends. Everything was slow motion, the falling creature, the reaction of Dylan, her heartbeat pounding lightly in her chest. It echoed through her ears, pulsing to the end of her fingertips on the trigger. Her breathing was slow and deep, keeping her calm and steady.

When there was no more time to waste, she pulled the trigger. It clicked, letting lose a loud, echoing noise that rang through the foggy air. A deafening shriek coursed through the air as the monster was hit. Its head exploded as the high caliber bullet shot clean through its head. Brain matter, bits of skull, and blood splattered onto the truck of the tree. It fell to the ground just in front of the two men with a loud thud.

"One kill," she finished, reloading the sniper.

!11!1!1!1!1!11!1!1!11!1!1!1!11111!1111!1!1!1!

"HOLY SHIT!" Kyle yelled loudly as the body fell in front of him. He quickly flung his shotgun at it and shot it once out of habit. Dylan couldn't even speak he was so shocked.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked Dylan, who stood breathing heavily.

"Dude! I said it was above us!" he then defended himself.

"Yeah when it was already coming down on top of us!" he retorted.

"Hey! At least I'm not adopted!" Dylan once again used his favorite come-back.

"I'm not adopted!" Kyle yelled back at him. He really didn't have much patients for his antics right now, given that they had both just about died.

"Jesus Christ can you two rage a little more please?" came a female voice from a couple feet away, walking up towards them. She had an all-knowing smirk on her face. Her face and body were covered by the ghillie suit, and she carried a large, black sniper rifle. On her belt there were two "pineapple" grenades and a golden Desert "Deagle" Eagle hand gun. "You guys were never in any danger, I had your backs."

"Well I'm not adopted! That's all I'm saying," Kyle defended to her.

"This is true," she responded, acting like it was a big deal.

"Dude, Lauren, what took you so long?" Dylan asked her, striking up a new topic rather than his lame jokes.

She lifted the hood of the ghillie suit from her face, revealing shoulder length hair that was dark brown in color. It was tied back in a ponytail, out of her face. Deep brown eyes and smaller features adorned her face. She had a mocking smile on in response to the question.

"What took me so long? I just saved your ass!" she retorted, walking up to rejoin the group. She held the large sniper rifle close to her body.

"Shut up Tree Wookie, you weren't the one being attacked," Dylan replied sarcastically.

"She has a point dude, and if you would have given me a little warning, everything would have been fine," Kyle added to the argument. Lauren gave an agreeing expression, slightly nodding her head and giving a small smile.

"Yeah well if you had stopped watching porn and actually paid attention, we wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes and the non-sense come-back. But, it was one they had never heard, and she had to give him at least _some_ credit for finally coming up with new material. Kyle rubbed his forehead with the pads of his fingers in annoyance, closing his eyes.

"Yes Dylan, because I can watch porn on this tiny little screen, and it would be worth my time to watch it in the first place," she retorted.

"Well, ya never know," was Dylan's response. Both Lauren and Kyle raised a brow at him. They looked at each other, a smirk crawling onto their faces. They looked back to Dylan, remaining silent for a moment. Dylan continued to stare them both down, becoming confused with them.

"So…you watch porn on that tiny screen?" Kyle finally asked. Both started to chuckle softly.

"He must not need it 'big'," Lauren remarked to Kyle, both chuckling even harder.

"You guys are so immature," Dylan said back to them.

"'Least we're not adopted," Kyle said back softly. Lauren looked to him, bursting out laughing. Kyle joined in, laughing so hard both their lungs hurt. Lauren grabbed onto Kyle's shoulder, holding herself up she was laughing so hard.

The man turned back around to yell at them. "K you know what? You guys suck!" Dylan turned his back to them, whispering things under his breath at the two after raging and walking away.

"Aw man, that was a good one dude," Lauren praised Kyle while catching her breath. "It's too bad Vegas and Niles are missing this, it's pure gold."

"Yeah where the hell are they?" Kyle asked.

"They should be coming up here soon, it's been over 4 hours already," said Lauren.

With nothing to do other than wait for the other two to rejoin them, Kyle and Lauren walked in a line following Dylan, who had decided to keep going.

"Come on, we better follow, he'll get himself killed," Kyle said to Lauren, who immediately agreed. They walked deeper into the forest, remaining alert as they did. It was unknown to them what lay beyond the forest, or what lay beyond the next tree for that matter. But, that didn't stop any of them.

"Think Niles and Vegas will be here soon?" Kyle asked her over his shoulder.

"They better be, otherwise we are screwed hardcore," she responded in a humorous tone.

"Challenge accepted."

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><p>Btw, I have nothing against people who are adopted, nor do I mean to offend them in this. That is simply something he says all the time, and it would not have been complete without it.<p>

Where the hell are Niles and Vegas? They better show up soon otherwise our rag-tag team is gonna be in trouble D:

Thanks guys, cheers all


	2. Chapter 2

Welcome to chapter 2 guys. Tried to keep this one (especially with the vehicles) as accurate as possible, but since i dont have a tank in my own backyards, i had to go off of pictures and videos. Hopefully it's not TOO bad. Enjoy guys.

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><p>Hundreds of miles back in a dusty clearing far outside the edges of the forest, two men sat with an M1A2 Abrams Tank. It was colored a light brown, having the logo N.O.T in military style stencil painted on both its sides. On the front hood was a painted black skull. Six additional white spotlights were mounted on top of the rotating turret above the gun, making it look more like an off-road vehicle than a killing machine. Then again, it was so heavily modified, it practically <em>was <em>an off-road vehicle. There were also underbody lights that shined light green, though they were invisible in the daylight.

The tank sat quietly, heavy armor plating baking in the sunlight. It wasn't exactly operational at this point. It had broken down earlier is the day due to some electrical parts getting clogged with sand and dust. It was really not built to operate in this type of environment in the first place, so it was no surprise to them.

While the two men, Niles and Vegas, the main tank crew stayed back, it was decided that Dylan, Kyle, and Lauren would keep heading west in search of a camp or some type of civilization. Though two people were not enough to run the entire tank, they could do cover the basics: driving and machine gunner. It was not expected that they would meet any other armor out on the desert, so the main gunner and loader were left out.

The first man, who was called Vegas, sat in the gunner seat with the hatch open, scanning the landscape. He was a tall, well-muscled man with dark skin and hair. He had a combat helmet on with black shield sunglasses covering his dark eyes. His uniform was like the rest, body armor vest, coat, pants, gloves, face mask, and combat boots. They were camouflaged a dusty sand color, perfect for the environment he was currently in. His vest had numerous pockets on the front and back, carrying various munitions and useful items such as batteries.

He was the newest member of the squad, having joined them only weeks before all of this had occurred. He never pictured himself stranded in a desert manning a broken-down tank during a plague of epic proportions. Just goes to show, one should never expect the unexpected.

!11!11!1!11!1!111!11!1!1!11!111111

_"SQUAD! FRONT AND CENTER!" yelled a short, balding man from inside a tent. He wore a short sleeve dark green camouflage shirt and matching pants, and black combat boots. On his left chest read the name "WATSON" in bold letters on the sewed-on nametag. _

_The sun outside was shining down hard on the desert landscape, radiating off the sand in waves of heat. The air was extremely dry, soaking moister from everything. Water had to be kept covered at all times, lest it dry up within minutes. Coolers were numerous around the camp as a result, kept safely in the shade away from the hunger of the sun. _

_The wind blew gusts of sand into the air, pelting the protective armor the people were wearing and the skin of those who weren't. Glasses were a must, unless you wished to be blinded by particles in your eyes. _

_The four people leisurely assembled in a dysfunctional line in front of the table the man was standing behind. They stood relaxed, almost as if not really paying attention. _

_The first in line had a double-barreled shotgun resting against his shoulder. He was dressed in a grey t-shirt and light, sandy colored pants and light combat boots. He had on black sunglasses and short, dirty blond hair. He was tall and thin, though nowhere near skin and bones. He was well-toned to say the least in fact. His face was clean-shaven, looking as if it had just been done. He kept himself well._

_The second carelessly swung a large machine gun back and forth, sporting his usual baseball hat. He was not as tall as the first, but still a good height. He had on a white t-shirt that read "Da Baws" in bolded, black letters. He wore the same pants and boots as the man next to him. He carried a large backpack on his back, filled with medical supplies and ammunition for the group. His face was growing a slight shadow, but he was not one to let it get too noticeable. _

_The third twirled a handgun around her finger while standing in an annoyed position, one leg slanted. A grey plain tank top bearing the sniper logo. It consisted of a human skull in the center with a shot right between the eyes. Around the skull was a Cobra snake, two crossed .50 caliber bullets, and words reading "U.S Army Sniper". Below that all, it read "One Shot, One Kill". Like the others, she wore the same sand-colored combat pants and boots. She had sporty red, reflective sunglasses on, along with a straw cowboy hat. She also had a thick black leather belt around her waist with a large chrome snarling wolf belt buckle._

_The fourth stood preoccupied, adjusting the nylon strap of a rocket launcher that was slung over his back. He had on a cutoff black t-shirt with the sleeves missing in a crude hack job. The edges were uneven and it had some slight tears in it. The shirt and pants had black grease stains all over them. He was wearing fingerless black gloves, which were also covered in black grease. He too had black sunglasses on. His sideburns were longer than the others, reaching halfway down his cheek. The rest of his face had the same stubble as the second man's._

_"Yo Niles, why the hell are you carrying a rocket launcher around?" the second asked across the line to the fourth, leaning forward to see him. Niles looked over to him._

_"Dylan, you're carrying a fifty pound backpack you noob," Niles replied. _

_The first looked to the third from over his shoulder. "He's got a point there," he said to her, to which she agreed to by nodding her head._

_Watson cleared his throat loudly, signaling for them to shut up. All four looked to him, expressing not-so-serious looks. Under normal circumstances, it would have taken more to get them to be quiet, but they wanted to get this over with as fast as possible._

_The man named Watson stood and looked at them in disbelief, chuckling softly to himself. He stared at them, trying to show them that he was displeased with what he saw. None of them seemed to really care though, the third in line even daring to give him a raised eyebrow. _

_Watson puffed out a cloud of smoke from his cigar. The smoke drifted into the faces of the four in front of him, causing one to cough. Watson was immediately on him._

_"You got something to say sugarplum?" he yelled loudly at the second man in line. The others looked to him. Dylan waved the smoke away from his face, taking the ball cap hat off and using it as a fan. _

_"Yeah, can you pay me in Trident Layers please?" he coughed out, trying to keep a straight face, though struggling. The rest of the line started trying to hold in a few chuckles, although some got through._

_"No one ever pays me in Trident Layers…" the female said quietly, eliciting a burst of laughter from the other three._

_"You there! You think you're funny," he paused, looking at the sniper's record sheets, "WolfEyes? Sounds more like Private Jokester to me," he yelled. Though his words were somewhat funny, he was being serious, which made it even better._

_The other three were still laughing, and it was painfully obvious that the third in question was not put off by the seemingly angry man in front of her. Her face immediately became very serious, crunching her eyebrows together with sarcastic anger._

_"Excuse me?" she asked in a retorting tone._

_"Oooohhhhhhhh, here we go," the first in line murmured. _

_Watson said nothing more, though giving a death glare to the four. He shook his head lightly in disbelief._

_"Look at you people, you are the most dysfunctional squad out of every single squad in this camp! You can't even stand at attention for briefing or show the slightest bit of respect to an officer-,"_

_"Since when?" Kyle burst out, effectively cutting him off. The fourth man raised both his eyebrows at the news, finding it surprising to say the least. Watson was the last person they would have expected to be an officer._

_The officer said nothing, but gave them another stern look, which did little to affect any of them._

_"Ok look, we don't have all day, so play nice with the other kids and tell us what you so urgently need to tell us, since you called us over here like you were about to go into cardiac arrest," Lauren told the man, completely disregarding the conversation that had just happened. The man sighed, shaking his head once again. He too wanted to get this meeting done, the less he had to deal with these reckless dumbasses the better._

_The officers in the camp knew about this squad, they were unique indefinitely. They were nothing more than a ragtag team of the best in their classes, although they didn't always act like it. _

_In fact, they rarely were anything less than a warning rather than a role model._

_Though they had a high disregard for any type of authority or direction, the squad would always complete missions, but never in the way they were originally instructed. They seemed to always take the most creative and dangerous approach possible, yet always came out successful. Never once had they failed a mission. They were highly respected, though not always looked at with the most trust given their dangerous ways._

_"As I was saying before being rudely interrupted, I have new orders from the Commander. He has requested that I place a new recruit into your 'capable' hands," placing special emphasis on 'capable'. _

_The four looked at each other briefly, confused as to why they of all people would be getting a new recruit. It was a surprise to say the least._

_From behind the other side of the tent came a tall, dark man. He was dressed in the typical combat attire, being vest, jacket, pants, and boots with a helmet and black sunglasses. He held an M4 rifle on his shoulder at attention. _

_"Now get out of here before I have your put to a firing squad," he said, turning to walk away while shaking his head. _

_"…that was it?" Kyle said, looking to his squad mates. The others shrugged, not really knowing what to say._

_"Guess so, now we can get back to our work," Niles said. Niles started to walk off, the rest of the group following behind. They walked through the camp, passing various tents. People were out and doing things in the small camp. Some were walking with friends they had made, others were running for daily workouts. Some stood in front of their officers waiting for instructions, and others simply were kicking back and enjoying a day's rest. _

_Niles was walking faster than the rest, out in the front. Dylan walked closely behind him, while Kyle and Lauren were ten feet behind them walking. The newcomer was walking close behind them, still unsure of his place in all of this and a bit confused to say the least. _

_He was fresh out of basic and combat training, packed up and shipped over right as soon as he graduated. He was a fine soldier, and always played by the rules. Respectable towards authority, and able to think and use common sense, he would be a great addition to the team._

_They would have to show him how things were done in THIS squad…_

_Rounding a corner right, a large tank came into view. It was parked right in the center of the camp area, which the new man had somehow seen coming. A slight smile came onto his face, and he felt more at ease now, seeing how dysfunctional they really were. But still, a part of him felt even more on edge about it, seeing as now, he had no idea what was expected of him._

_A small tent was set up behind the massive machine, housing living space and supplies for the team. It too was in disarray, having sleeping bags that were not rolled up, and supplies that laid out on the ground._

_Everyone seemed to file into their own places, Dylan and Niles choosing to be close to the tank, and Kyle and Lauren choosing to stand off to the side._

_"So, you're the recruit?" Kyle started. Immediately, the new man went to attention, holding completely still. _

_"Sir, yes sir," was his strong response. Training has taught him the formal acts of respect towards higher-ranked soldiers, and he really didn't have a clue of who he was dealing with yet. His best bet was to pull out all the tricks._

_It would have been nice if Watson had at least told him what rank these people were…_

_"Heh, at ease soldier, at ease. I'm surprised Watson will put anyone with us, he can't stand us," Kyle explained to the new man, though he was more talking to the woman next to him as well. Still, he stood at attention, figuring it was better to show he knew his place than to show ignorance._

_"Tell me about it, that man would poison Dylan is his sleep given the chance," Lauren said, turning her head over her shoulder to look at him._

_"Shut up you noob! Everyone loves me!" Dylan yelled from over by Niles. He yelled, but all laughed and knew it was only a playful prod. They liked to joke with each other, it helped keep them sane._

_"Sure they do, just like everyone tells the Commander they love running in 110 degree heat," she replied, though not loud enough for him to hear._

_Both Niles and Dylan were standing next to an M1A2 Abrams tank. The tank was assigned to them in the beginning of their deployment as a stock tank, but now was a customized monster thanks to Niles. Initially the group tried to refuse the beast, but they quickly grew to like it as a squad member itself._

_That was, until they figured out WHY this particular tank was assigned to them. It was one of the more troubled vehicles, constantly giving repair crews problems and highly unreliable._

_No wonder._

_Luckily, Niles was well-versed in all types of repairs, and for whatever reason, the tank seemed to work for him, most of the time. _

_Niles was the head engineer of the group, and had a knack for customizing any piece of machinery he could get his hands on. He had even gone so far as to install green under-body lights and six spotlights for additional headlights on the beast. The tank was affectionately called "Old Ironside"._

_"Sir, permission to speak, sir," the newcomer asked in a deep voice._

_"Sure man, go for it," Kyle replied lightly._

_"This squad is call the 'Noobs Of Terror', sir?" he asked, reading from the side of the tank._

_"Yep, that's us," Kyle answered. _

_"I see, Colonel Watson didn't tell me anything about your squad, I guess he has something against you, sir," he said._

_"He doesn't like us because he didn't make it into our squad, he's just jealous that we have all the fun and he sits doing…officer stuff," the first explained, waving it off as not important. The new man nodded, looking on at the tank._

_"So what's your name, soldier?" Kyle then asked him._

_"They call me Vegas, sir. They always did at training, and I guess it just stuck, sir," Vegas explained. He was trying to test how many formalities was expected of him, since so far, he was trying to employ all of the training he had been given._

_Overhearing the conversation, Lauren turned around, "you'll fit right in then. We all have codenames," she said, a smile on her face. Reaching out to shake Vegas' hand, she introduced herself. "I'm Lauren, although these noobs call me Wolf sometimes," she said._

_Vegas was immediately at attention again, saluting formally after shaking her hand. Lauren informally rendered the salute with two fingers, a smile across her face the whole time. "No need to be so formal Vegas, that's not how we do things in this squad. Anything goes here," she explained._

_"Yes Ma'am," was his reply, going once again, lax._

_"And I'm Kyle or Defender, whichever you prefer doesn't make any difference to me. And those two noobs over there are Niles or Maelstrom, he's the head engineer of the group working on Old Ironside. And that other noob is Dylan or Death, which really doesn't make since given the fact that he is a medic. I don't know how he passed medic training in the first place," Kyle explained._

_"He just copied off everyone else, we already know that," Lauren said, laughing. The other two men chuckled lightly, while an angry Dylan heard them from a couple feet away._

_"Hey! Shut up Lauren! You don't know anything about medic stuff!" he yelled over his shoulder from next to the tank._

_"Yeah well neither do you, so good to know we are both on the same page!" she yelled back over her own shoulder, turning back, laughing. "Gotta love him," she remarked in a sarcastic tone, eliciting another chuckle from Kyle._

_"He definitely seems to be the comic relief of the group," Vegas noted out loud._

_"For sure he is, he's…..just Dylan," Kyle said, not really knowing how to finish the sentence. _

_The group stood in their circle for a bit, just looking around at the activity that was happening in the small camp. _

_They were in the middle of a desert in the Middle East of the Earth. The U.S had begun operations here years ago, but the squad had only been here for a little over a year. However, they had known each other mostly their whole lives, save for Vegas. When they had signed up for the Army, they were placed in different training, and sadly thought they had seen the last of each other. But, fate would have it that a good squad never leaves one another. The day they were ready to ship out, they were given squads, and only by fate itself, were they all placed together once again. One can imagine the looks of surprise they got when they all ended up at the same place at the same time._

_Although no official ranks were given to Vegas when he joined the group, he was beginning to pick up on the structure of them. From what he had gathered, Lauren, or Wolf, was a master sharpshooter. She had an outgoing personality, though highly sarcastic at times. The rest of the squad looked up to her he could tell, but she acted as one of them entirely. Arrogance was not one of her characteristics. _

_Kyle, Defender, was quieter, and quite calm. He seemed to be the most mature of the males in the group, but he knew how to cut lose. Vegas found him easy to get along with and talk to. His sarcasm was just as thick as Lauren's at times, though usually withheld a bit more. He was an assault soldier, the main gun. Though he usually carried a combat shotgun, which Vegas was told he is very handy with, Kyle was known to also have an M4 rifle close by._

_Dylan, or Death, was definitely the comic relief. He relaxed the mood for everyone whether he meant to or not. Though some people would write him off as immature, it was obvious to Vegas that his role was very much needed. He was eager to learn more about this man, he seemed interesting. It was unknown yet if he really knew medical aspects, but since not one of the other members had died yet, he decided that he probably knew enough. _

_Niles was very passionate for machines, Vegas could tell that much. He had done nothing but want to work on the tank since he was first introduced. Though he had not really gotten a chance to talk to him, he was highly regarded by the rest, so he assumed he was probably a nice person. Niles appeared to be highly knowledgeable about the machines the squad needed, such as tanks, which made him an irreplaceable member to the team. _

_Lauren and Kyle walked up behind Dylan and Niles by the tank, Vegas following close behind. Vegas followed Lauren, standing close to see what was going on. She put the large handgun into a black leather holster on her large belt. The shiny weapon gleamed in the bright sunlight of the hot day. She walked up to the left side of the tank, resting an arm on it and leaning against the hot metal. Laying on the top hood of the tank was her large black sniper rifle. _

_Kyle went to the right, by where Niles was currently working on the side armor of the tank, doing the same. He set his shotgun down on the hood of Old Ironside. _

_Niles had a couple plates of heavy armor stacked up next to him that he was trying to put on the side. He appeared to be replacing all of the hanging side armor on the tank, not an easy feat. He had a welder out, and a mask covering his face._

_"How's Old Ironside coming along Niles?" Lauren asked him. He turned off the welder, lifting his mask to look at her. _

_"Almost done, just two more plates and she's done," was the reply._

_"Good, 'cause we have to bounce at 19:00 tonight," Kyle reminded him._

_"Whaaaaaaaaaaat?" Dylan jokingly whined loudly to him, "I wanted to actually SLEEP tonight!" Vegas looked around, trying to figure out what this was all about. He hadn't been briefed on any mission._

_"Why didn't you sleep LAST night?" Niles asked, mask still up._

_"Because we didn't have our regular bunks, and I had a rock in my back the whole night," Dylan replied back. It was true, the ground hadn't been very comfortable. They had been forced to sleep in a tent outside on the ground without beds because they had come back to camp late the night before. They had been out with two of the Humvees doing doughnuts in the sand. Not only was it an inappropriate use of army vehicles, but they had missed "curfew". _

_It had still been fun._

_"What exactly are we doing?" Vegas asked, changing the subject back to the mission which he had no idea about._

_"We're infiltrating a camp on the outskirts of the village that is housing many of the rebel tanks. Our job is to get confirmed positions on as many of them as we can for arty batteries," she explained to him. He nodded in understanding._

_"Arty? Meaning, artillery?" he asked._

_"Right on," she replied with a smile._

_"But, we never do things by the book, and this is where your past training will fail you. They didn't train you for any of the things we do in this ragtag team," Kyle said, adjusting his sunglasses. Vegas seemed confused._

_"Which is why we're planning on taking out as many of those tanks as we can," Dylan added enthusiastically, pounding his fists together. Vegas looked to Kyle, who took a backpack off the ground next to the tank. Unzipping it, he grabbed a pack of C4 plastic explosive, a smirk crawling onto his face. _

_"Awwwww yeeeaahhhh now THAT'S more like it!" Lauren cheered, tilting her hat in acceptance._

_Dylan moved over by Vegas, putting a solid hand on his shoulder, "don't worry newby, we got your back." Vegas smiled, hoping that he didn't end up getting killed in that process. But, with a medic like Dylan, how could this go bad?_

_"Now, I hope you know how to use a heavy machine gun."_

!1!1!111!1!11!111!11!111!1!1!1!1!1!

Niles continued working furiously on the tank's engine. For once, the wind wasn't blowing, and everything was very calm. It was a sort of eerie calm, one suggesting that something was ready to happen within an instant. There was nothing in sight other than sand for as long as the eye could see. The tank had broken down well before the large forest the others had already gotten to and were waiting for their backup. But, what had taken them forever, would taken them a quarter of the time to cross.

"You ok down there Niles?" Vegas called, looking to the back of the tank from his post on the machine gun. He let his binoculars down for a moment to look at Niles. Niles had the back panel of the tank off, and was working on the internal parts of it.

Vegas was beginning to see why this tank was given to the squad: it had an attitude. It seemed to only work when it wanted to, and sometimes had a mind of its own entirely. But, luckily Niles was fairly well versed in fixing the troubled machine, and he had never failed to get it up and running again.

Just another day it seemed.

"Yep, almost got it, it's this damn electrical system, it can't handle all this sand," he replied, yelling back up.

With that, Vegas went back to his binoculars, scanning the land in all directions for threats. So far, nothing was moving at all.

"Well hurry up, we gotta meet up with the others. It's been almost 5 hours now," Vegas taunted playfully.

"I know I know, but scraping sandstone off wires the thickness of a human hair isn't a fast process!" Niles yelled back up from down in the sand.

He had reconnected everything that he had already done, making sure to get everything back together correctly. This was the last bit of wiring that was not done yet. The sand had become so hot inside the engine, it had hardened until it was almost like rock, making it very hard to get off of the wire. Niles had out a tiny screwdriver set, using the flathead to gently scrape away the sand and dirt. He was kneeled in the sand, holding the bundles of wiring in his left hand, while holding the screwdriver in his right.

He finished the last wire, bundling it back up with the others. He placed the connector top back on, making sure everything was put together well. He took the two connectors, pushing them together to complete the circuit.

Suddenly, the tank roared to life. The lights came on, the engine roared to life, and all systems were active. Both were a bit startled by its sudden start, seeing as it wasn't supposed to start. But then again, this was Old Ironside they were talking about.

"Ok now, who is the best mechanic here?" Niles said happily, grabbing the back panel and pushing it back on.

Vegas chuckled lightly. "Ok ok you win. You are, you are." Once the back panel was securely on, Niles grabbed his tools and carried them to a large duffle-like bag on the ground. He pushed all the tools into the bag, and secured it shut. He tied it down to the back racks of the tank, using the hooks on the side to secure it.

He shook his hands off, clouds of dust flying off them. Walking up to the side of the tank, the two felt an immense sense of excitement. It was like this every time they suited up to take off. Spirits were high even in their current situation. All that they were thinking about was going to find the rest of the group, whom they had lost radio contact with only fifteen minutes after they had been forced to stop and make repairs.

Dust storms were a bitch.

"Let's get this show on the road man," Niles yelled up to Vegas. He jumped up on the side of the tank, further jumping up on top of the turret. Jumping down the main hatch to the left of Vegas' machine gunner post, he left it open to be able to hear if Vegas yelled for him. He crawled under the turret mounting to the driver's seat. The space was very tight, but it didn't bother him. Leaning far back in the chair, which he had modified to feel like a comfortable reclining chair, he took hold of the steering, which was like bicycle handles.

"You ready up there?" Niles yelled up to Vegas.

"As I'll ever be dude, let's go!" he responded, looking out through his binoculars.

With a powerful lurch, the tank surged forward. The engine roared to life once again and they were off. Wind and sand pelted Vegas' face, which he chose to cover up with a face mask. With his black sunglasses covering his eyes, and a black face mask with a lower human jaw layout on it covering the rest of his face, he was a force to be reckoned with.

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><p>Thanks for reading<p>

Cheers


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys. Sorry about recent inactivity, I haven't felt much like writing. Too many new video games came out, and I must say, that is what I have been doing XD I hope you all had a great Holiday season, and are ready for the new year :D I hope to make updates more frequent now that I have managed to get a bit of inspiration from media and such.

Enjoy

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><p>It was starting to get dark out beyond the forest, they could feel it. Though they really couldn't see the darkness that was swallowing the outside, their senses were finely tuned into it. A feeling of danger and insecurity was accompanied with it. To be out at night with no form of shelter was borderline suicide. Not to mention the fact that there were monsters surrounding the area waiting until just one of them lost their focus to strike.<p>

The air was becoming dense and wet, and the rays of yellowish-grey light that managed to get through the treetops before were now fading away rapidly. The dark fog was becoming thick, making it difficult to see more than twenty yards away. The remaining glares of light hit the fog, creating an even worse environment.

The thought of having to fend off these creatures at night with very little protection was becoming a startling realism for them.

"Niles and Vegas better hurry up, otherwise we are going to have to stay out here all night," Lauren whispered lowly to the others next to her. She could see the unease in the other two's eyes. Their body language was smooth, yet alert to the surroundings. They all knew that making it through the night in their position with nothing to defend themselves was slim at best.

"Should we start thinking about making a temporary camp?" Kyle asked the group.

"Dude, putting up a tent isn't going to protect us from those monsters, we need ARMOR," Dylan argued.

"I actually agree with Dylan," Lauren said, earning a sarcastic look from Kyle, and an unimpressed one from Dylan.

"Anything we can make in the amount of time we have with the materials available will do us no good. We will be better off how we are now," she explained. Kyle looked defeated, any type of hope gone.

The three squad mates had made a sort of strong hold in a small ditch backed against a large tree. Each watched a different direction for any type of threat. They had sensor pinged the entire area, and nothing was coming up. Still, they remained alert. Yet even though they were alert, the mood was still relatively light.

"God, how long does it take to fix a tank?" Dylan asked sarcastically.

"Ok dude, listen to what you just said. Would you like to try again?" Kyle replied. Lauren looked over at them, chuckling lightly at the two.

Though it seemed to an outsider that the three, especially Kyle and Dylan, bickered constantly, it was nothing more than friendly interaction. Each knew the others' sarcasm, and knew that their words were not meant to hurt, but just the norm for them.

Plus, it helped to keep the stress down.

Then, a tearing sound was heard next to Dylan. Both looked to his direction to see what made the noise. He started laughing loudly.

"Christ in heaven Dylan!" Lauren yelled loudly, covering her face with her facemask and turning away. The facemask was black with a wolf's roaring fangs on it.

"Dylan! Fuck you man! You don't do that when you're next to other people you dumbass!" Kyle yelled, waving his hand in front of his face to clear the air.

"Come on guys, I'm all the way over here, you can't even smell it!" Dylan complained back, still laughing.

"Dude! I'm right next to you!" Lauren then yelled at him.

"Well I'm sorry! Better out than in anyway."

"No! No, that is SUCH a lie!"

"Nu uh!"

"That's not an intelligent answer, try again."

"At least I'm not adopted."

"I'M NOT ADOPTED!"

"GUYS! Shut the fuck up for a second, I heard something," Kyle yelled at the two. They were immediately silenced. In the moment, they had forgotten that silence was the key, and had probably alerted the whole forest to their position.

They all sat, senses finely tuned into the environment around them. Everything seemed quite, but quite was never a good thing here. Lauren opened up the scanner for the sensor ping on her fingers, looking at the screen. Red dots were coming in fast from right in front of them. Her eyes widened. _There are so many…_

"Fuck, guys we got multiple hostiles coming in right in front of us. Dylan get that LMG loaded and ready, you're going to have to spray and pray. Kyle, fingers on that trigger ready to fire," she announced, closing the scanner up and putting out her own sniper rifle only its bipod. She looked through the large scope, hoping to be able to see the enemies before they see them.

"How many is 'multiple'?" Kyle asked quietly to the others.

"A shit ton," Dylan answered, holding the LMG steady on its bipod.

"Perfect…" Kyle responded sarcastically, turning back to sight his shotgun.

Everyone was perfectly silent and still, waiting for what they knew was coming.

Suddenly, Lauren spotted one of them off in the distance through the fog in the scope. It was much easier to spot due to its glowing red eyes. It was too far away to see with the naked eye, and with all the trees and brush lying around, it was near impossible to get a clear shot.

"Target sighted," she whispered harshly, continuing to look at the human-like creature. It was anything but human anymore though. The disease had completely taken over its mind, and left it with nothing but primal instincts.

"Can you make the shot with all these trees?" Kyle asked her.

"Probably, but if I shoot it will give away our position," she replied quietly.

"Worry about that later dude, just take out as many of them as you can," Dylan whispered back.

"Just do it," Kyle agreed.

With the further encouragement, she felt that they were ready for what would happen after this shot. Making one final adjustment, the scope was locked on. The target wasn't moving, it was just standing there looking around. It only made it that much easier to hit. Breathing slowly and deeply, her hands were completely still, making sure the scope was just right. She pulled the trigger.

A loud blast ripped through the quiet of the forest, pushing out a puff of smoke from their makeshift shelter. Leaves and brush flew up into the air from the blast.

A small smile graced her lips.

"Headshot, target is down," she whispered, receiving a hand on the shoulder from each of the others. Its head exploded into pieces, blowing hunks of skull and blood in every direction as the body fell to the ground with a muffled thump, motionless.

Continuing to look through the scope, she then saw tens of pairs of red glowing eyes face them, alerted to their presence.

Just as she had expected.

"Ok guys we got more coming in, and they are mad as hell that I just took out their friend," she said softly, still trying to conceal their position if possible while reloading the large gun. The beasts pushed through a line of trees, bringing them in close proximity of the group in the ditch. Their glowing eyes showed through the fog, making it look like red blurs were quickly approaching.

"Too late, spray and pray noobs!" Dylan yelled, using the full automatic of his light machine gun. The beasts fell fast, but were still coming in great numbers until there were simply too many. Both Lauren and Kyle had joined in on the shooting, Lauren using her handgun and Kyle employing his shotgun.

The roars and shrieks of the monsters were deafening, combined with the blasts from the rifles. All other noise was drowned out around them. The sound of the bodies falling one by one was muffled out, until they were unheard completely.

"Fuck! They just keep coming!" Dylan yelled over the gunfire. More and more pushed past the line of trees, and it was getting harder and harder to get them all.

Suddenly, bright lights shined to their right. It was almost blinding, cutting through the fog like a hot knife through butter. Full-size trees were knocked down like simple sticks, crushing some of the monsters under them, killing some and trapping others with loud, thunderous pounds. The loud roar of a full diesel engine was accompanied by the blinding light. A loud, deep horn sounded from the object, and the sound of a large machine gun followed it.

Laughing with happiness, and at the perfect timing, Kyle yelled, "there they are!" The sight of Old Ironside was a relief to say the least. Any worry that had once held them was completely gone now, replaced with confidence and even cockiness.

"Ok get to cover noobs! Kyle get loader! Dylan man that main gun and give me that LMG, I'll cover fire with Vegas!" Lauren yelled. One by one, they jumped out of the mini-trench they had found, each laying down cover fire as another climbed out. First, Dylan was out, continuing to fire at the creatures. Then, Lauren and Kyle followed. Walking backwards, careful to spot all the enemies around, they backed up towards the tank, which lucky for them was only ten feet away.

Dylan handed the LMG to Lauren as he jumped up onto the hull of the tank. She handed it back up as she then climbed up. She took Kyle's weapon as he climbed up as well, using both arms to hoist himself up as the others had done. She handed the shotgun back, and he made his way for the loader's hatch.

Dylan put his hand on Vegas' shoulder, getting him to focus on him. "Could have taken a bit longer? We were almost dead!" he yelled at him over the machine gun fire.

"Be happy we came to get you at all!" Vegas replied, words dripping with sarcasm. Slapping his shoulder again, Dylan handed off his LMG to Lauren, who was kneeling on the front hull above the painted skull.

"Come on Dylan get your ass in that hatch! You have to go before I do!" Kyle yelled at him, continuing to fire off shells.

"I'm going I'm going!" he yelled back, turning and jumping down the hatch. Kyle followed, jumping down the hatch. He grabbed a shell from the rack, loading it into the main gun.

"Good to see you didn't forget about us Niles!" Kyle yelled down the Niles in the driver's seat, in the very front of the tank.

"Hey, never! Who else is gonna shoot my gun?" he responded, yelling over his shoulder up the hatch leading to the gunner station.

"Good one!" Dylan yelled back sarcastically. Kyle rolled his eyes.

Dylan sighted the gun, lining up the ground in front of the creatures with the scope. The screen that was the scope had range finders as well as blue-tinted sights, to cut our glare from sunlight. He didn't need that part though, given there was no sunlight. The cameras could also be turned to thermal imaging, as well as night vision, though he chose to keep those off.

"Clear," Kyle yelled once he was safely away from the turret. He was backed up against the side of the tank so when the shell was shot, the recoil wouldn't take him out with it.

"Clear to fire," Dylan called out. It was the signal for Niles to lock the brakes to get the most accuracy out of the shot as possible. With a click, the brakes were safely locked.

"Steady up there! Dylan has a gun and he's using it!" Kyle yelled up the hatches to Lauren and Vegas.

"Shut up you're messing up my focus!" Dylan yelled at Kyle, looking away from the sights. Kyle smiled, laughing at him. Dylan ignored him, turning back to the screen.

"Firing!" Dylan called out loudly. Everyone in the tank steadied themselves for the shock they knew would come. He pulled the trigger, unleashing the loudest of any of the sounds in the forest. The shockwave blew brush and debris away like a heavy wind storm. A heavy cloud a smoke billowed from the turret barrel, mixing with the fog outside. The mounted fog lights shined right through everything.

The tank recoiled back on its treads, rocking everyone inside. The antennas on the back on the tank wobbled back and forth wildly. The shell was aimed at the dirt in front of the monsters, exploding into a heavy fountain of dirt, wood, and bodies. It leaped into the air, ripping limbs from bodies and shattering wood and landscape in its way. The blast took out quite a bit of the mob, leaving a suitable amount for another round.

The machine gunners up top continued to fire at the remaining enemies, watching them fall one by one. They were not hard to hit, given that they were not very intelligent on avoiding shots. The smaller blasts from the machine guns reflected in orange bursts on the users' faces, lighting them up.

"Reloading!" Kyle yelled, grabbing another shell from behind him. The shell was quite large, much longer than his shoulder length. It was shinny and surprising heavy, given that it was mostly hollow. He laid it down in the barrel chamber, pushing it through and closing the blast chamber. Dylan just kept his sights on the targets, relying on communication to get everything right.

It wasn't hard for them, they were pros.

"Clear!" Kyle announced, returning to his safe location up against the side.

"Firing!" Dylan yelled, once again pulling the trigger. The same loud blast racked the vehicle. The shot was fired, and exploded into the same fountain of debris, blowing monsters into the air. The screamed as they were hit, as body parts were ripped from each other.

"Hold up," Vegas said to Lauren, ceasing fire. She looked to him, surveying the landscape.

"Reloading," Kyle said from down inside the tank.

"Hold up down there, I think they are gone," Vegas called down the loading hatch.

"Damn right they are, we got them all," Dylan called up proudly. He turned the main gun around in a circle, searching the area around them. There was nothing but smoking terrain and large holes blown into the earth. It showed clearly on the targeting monitor, there was nothing left.

"I'm not seeing anything left dudes," Dylan called up to the two manning the machine guns.

"Well that doesn't mean they won't be back with friends," Vegas replied, "they know where we are now."

"Well, we're going to have to find somewhere to sleep, think we should move out of this area?" Lauren asked the group. She looked to Vegas, who gave her a pondering look. Kyle and Dylan looked at each other, deciding if they really wanted to keep going in the darkness rather than just call it a night.

"I think we should just stay here, traveling through all these trees at night won't be easy," Niles called up from the driver's seat.

"Yeah I agree with Niles," Kyle said, "plus I'm tired as hell."

"If you say so," Lauren replied, looking to Vegas. "Let's get outta here." She grabbed the LMG, handing it down to Dylan, who was happy to have it back. Moving down through the hatch, she landed in the little space at the bottom of the floor.

"Shut it down Niles, calling it quits for the night," Lauren called down to Niles. He pushed a large red button on the right side of the steering, shutting the engine off. Pushing another button, the lights went off on the outside, leaving the landscape around them completely dark. The only light they had was a small overhead light inside the driver's and gunner's compartments.

Vegas detached the heavy machine gun from the post, lifting the heavy piece of metal up off the post. "HMG coming down," he called down, turning it upwards and handing it down. He took the belts of ammunition from around his neck, handing them down as well. Lauren took the HMG, placing it in the back of the turret out of the way, while Kyle grabbed the belts of ammo, placing them in the same corner.

"You got the sleeping bags Vegas?" Kyle called up.

"Yep, I got them," he responded. He crawled up out of the hatch, moving across the flat top of the turret to the storage racks that circled the outer turret. He took the bungee cords off that were securing the supplies for the group. The sleeping supplies were kept in a large tan tarp, to protect them from sand and dirt. Unwrapping the tarp, he grabbed the four sleeping bags that were rolled up tightly.

Niles chose not to have one, finding his driver's seat more comfortable. Plus, it was one less thing that had to carry around. He went for a blanket that he kept in the driver's compartment instead.

Dylan popped up from the hatch in time to catch one that Vegas had thrown back. He handed it down and caught the next, doing the same for all four. Lauren and Kyle grabbed theirs and began to unroll then in the flat space inside the turret. Laying side by side, there was just enough room for all of them to lay behind the loader and gunner station.

"Anyone need food or drink while I'm up here?" Vegas asked Dylan. Dylan then turned to look down the hatch.

"Food or drink anyone?" he asked.

"Yeah I'll take some of both, whatever you got," Niles called from over his shoulder.

"Yeah I'll take some too," Lauren said.

"Same, I don't care what it is, but I'm starving," Kyle agreed.

Dylan looked straightened up. "Yeah we need four food and four drink," he replied to Vegas.

"I'll just grab the whole cooler," he replied, unhooking one of the blue coolers and lifting it up. He pushed it across the turret top, until Dylan grabbed it. He climbed down back into the tank, pulling the cooler down with him. He pushed it off to Lauren, who grabbed it and moved it out of the way.

Vegas crawled back across the turret, moving down the hatch. He was careful to secure the heavy bolt tightly, making sure nothing would get in. Niles joined them from the driver's seat, sitting down in the loader's seat, just in front of where the rest had set up their sleeping bags. Vegas took a seat in the gunner's seat.

"How many more coolers of supplies we got up there?" Lauren asked Vegas.

"Two more, each have three day's worth of supplies in them though," he replied.

"So we got six days to find more food, that's when the groceries run out," Kyle added.

"Shouldn't be a problem, it's going to be much harder to find water than food," Niles said.

"We should run into some sort of camp by then, there is bound to be one out here," Lauren said, "if not, we'll just have to eat Dylan."

The group laughed, with the exception of Dylan, who was opening the cooler to see what was left.

"You guys suck so hard," he said to them, though they just continued to laugh.

Lauren took off the ghillie suit she was wearing, unstrapping the straps that secured the arms, legs, and waist. She removed the covering, revealing her normal garb, consisting of a grey tank top and combat pants and boots. She put the ghillie suit on the ground in the gunner compartment out of the way. She removed the large leather belt as well that carried her side arms. She was also wearing a front vest that only covered her front for laying prone. It had multiple hooks and pouches for grenades as well as ammunition. Those two items joined the ghillie suit on the ground.

The rest followed her example, removing their heavy boots, gloves, helmets, vests, and jackets and placing them on the floor. Dog tags on each of them jingled as they moved about.

"What do we have to eat?" Kyle asked, throwing his heavy jacket down on the ground.

"Bread and peanut butter with water, as always," Dylan said, sifting through the cooler.

"Sandwich time, Lauren get on it," Dylan announced rather sarcastically. She glared at him, and he earned a hard slap across the face from Kyle who was seated right next to him.

"Dude, not cool," Niles added.

"Ow! Come on I was just kidding," Dylan said, rubbing his stinging cheek.

"We didn't think it was funny," Lauren added, reaching over for the bread and jar of peanut butter. She took a knife and opened the top of the jar. With two pieces of break ready, she took some peanut butter out and spread it plentifully on the bread.

"So Niles, what was up with Old Ironside that took you five hours to fix?" Kyle asked, changing the subject. Niles grabbed the jar and knife from Lauren, grabbing two pieces of bread she handed him as well. He began to make a sandwich.

"Well, there was sand caked onto all of the wires in the engine, it was shorting out the system. I had to chip it all off piece by piece," he answered.

"Sounds like that was frustrating," Lauren replied, taking a sip of water from her bottle.

"It was boring, I had to sit there and look at desert for five hours," Vegas added.

"Better than what we went through, as soon as we got the edges of the forest we knew we were fucked," Kyle said to the group. Lauren and Dylan nodded their heads in agreement.

"It was no problem, I knew I could take them all on," Dylan added from the back.

"Sure you did Dylan, sure you did," Kyle replied, patting him on the back. Once Niles was done with the supplies for food, Vegas took them, making himself something to eat. One by one, the supplies were passed around, until everyone was happily eating and drinking some fresh water.

Minutes turned into hours that the group was up chatting. There were many laughs, and many good times. They had finished their meals, though it hadn't been much. A couple sandwiches each and a bottle of water was what they were used to living off. The supplies were placed back into the cooler, shut, and it was placed on the floor out of the way.

"Well, I'm going to head off to bed guys, I'll see you tomorrow," Niles said to the group. Everyone was getting pretty tired, and it was late.

"Night Niles," the group replied, some yawning.

"It's 2:46 A.M, you guys should be getting to be too," Niles called back, looking at the clock in the driver's compartment. He laid back in the seat, which he had modified to be nothing short of a reclining chair. It was quite comfortable to sleep in.

"Yep, we are, thanks bud," Lauren replied. She turned to crawl back into the low sleeping area. The ceiling was only a foot and a half off the ground, leaving only room to lay flat. Kyle and Dylan followed behind.

"No fair Lauren you got the edge," Dylan exclaimed.

"Dude quiet," Kyle 'shhed' him.

"You had the edge last night," Lauren said back, refusing to move.

Vegas came in behind the other two, crawling to the opposite edge of Lauren. They all got into their sleeping bags, fully intent on sleeping.

"Lights out, night everyone," Vegas announced, hitting the light before he got into his sleeping bag. The group issued their good nights to each other, and it was not long before everyone was fast asleep.

!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!11!1!

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><p>Looks like Niles and Vegas showed up just in time! Good thing too, otherwise the others would have been screwed! I hope you enjoyed this next chapter, and tune in for the next one coming up!<p>

Cheers


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! Welcome to chapter 4 of NOT: The Bad Company. Second chapter in 2 days, wow! Helps that I had a snow day today, worked on it all day :D

Enjoy

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><p>The tank sat quietly, unmoving deep within the forest. Its tan exterior was surprisingly good at blending into the forest-like environment. It sat as still as a stone, breaking the outlines of the forest and confusing the eyes. A few birds chirped loudly as they flew from tree to tree. There were a couple rays of sunlight that made it through the thick canopy of the tree line. Fog blanketed the ground, almost completely covering it. It created an almost ocean-like feel. Visibility was only a few feet ahead, and even the biggest of trees were hidden.<p>

Inside the tank was dark, completely dark. It was quiet and warm inside, and everyone still asleep. The air was quiet warm and comfortable due to all of the body heat in the small area. It was very safe feeling, since they were all together. The metal of the outside walls of the tank were cold as steel, but served to make sure it didn't get too hot inside. The soft sounds of the four in the turret sleeping echoed off the steel walls.

They were not morning people.

Vegas was the first one up usually, and today proved no different. He had found it hard to shake the training he had had to always get up early. He was getting better though.

He opened his eyes to complete blackness, and couldn't really tell if his eyes were even open at all. The air around him was encompassing and safe. The feeling represented the close ties with the people sleeping around him. It was warm, soft, and comforting.

He pushed the top of the sleeping bag off, continuing to lay there. Illuminating his watch, he read the time.

_1:39 P.M._

Ugh, they really needed to get up.

Vegas took a small flashlight from the single pocket on his sleeping bag, turning it on. It shined a bright white light across to the wall on the other side of the turret, where Lauren was still sound asleep.

The cooler sat on the ground where they had left it the night before, or morning, whichever you prefer, since they had gone to bed when it was almost three in the morning. It was joined by the various belts, vests, and heavy boots on the ground that they had opted to not sleep in. They were in no way thrown about in an organized fashion, something Vegas had found hard to get used to at first. Though now, it was second nature to him.

As much as he hated to admit it, their rather unkempt ways had grown on him.

He thought about whether to wake the group up, seeing as they still needed to cover a lot of ground today. Though, they really had no destination. They're main objective at the moment was to keep enough food and water in the coolers, finding civilization was just a bonus at this point.

He figured he should wake them up.

Shining the bright light in Lauren's face, he watched as she winced at the night. Her arm came out of her sleeping bag, covering her face.

"Lauren, wake up, we gotta get going," he said in a normal voice, not trying to be quiet for the others.

She groaned at the rather rude awakening, rubbing her face with her hands.

Vegas did the same for the other two, shining the little night in their faces and watching them try to block it.

"Come on guys, get up," he said, crawling out of the turret area.

"Dude, not cool," Dylan moaned, his voice filled with sleepiness.

Vegas moved down to the driver's seat, shining the light in the little area. He grabbed the man who slept there's shoulder, shaking it.

"Niles, get up," he called to the sleeping man. With a groan, he was awake.

"Ok ok, fine," he replied in a tired voice.

Now that everyone was up, Vegas turned the overhead light on, lighting up the tank. The three in the turret briefly covered their faces from the blinding light. They laid prone, up on their forearms. Niles soon joined them from the driver's compartment, coming to sit in the gunner's seat with the group, yawning. Vegas took his seat in the loader's chair, waiting for the others to fully wake up. He pocketed the little flashlight on his pants pocket.

Lauren looked over to Dylan, who's hair was sticking up in all different directions. She couldn't help but laugh quietly.

"Nice hair Dylan," she laughed in a sleep voice. It quickly drew attention to his hair, and soon everyone was laughing quietly.

"Yours is nice too," he replied sarcastically, trying to comb it down with his fingers.

Kyle stretched his arms out, asking, "what is there for breakfast?"

"Same as dinner noob," Niles answered, already going for the cooler. His hair was not nearly as messed up as the others. The others chuckled lightly.

"I'll check what it looks like outside," Vegas volunteered. He sat in the loader's seat, switching on one of the screens. The light reflected heavily off his face, showing the outside world through one of the multiple cameras mounted on the top of the turret. Using the joystick, he turned the camera all the way around, looking for any threats. All he saw was a bunch of trees, and thick fog on the ground.

While he was checking that, Niles was busying making himself something to eat. He figured that he could eat while they kept driving and the rest got themselves ready and ate.

"Nothing out there, we're clear," he announced, leaving the screen on. They would monitor the outside world from inside, not really wanting to get full of sand when they made it out of the forest.

"Alright guys, hang on back there we are heading out, get ready in case we find something," Niles said before turning back, ducking down to get back into his driver's seat. He took another bite of his sandwich, putting the bottle of water he had grabbed into the cup holder he had installed to his right. He pressed the large red button to the right of the steering, turning the engine on. The roar of the tank rattled the occupants slightly, but they were used to it. He began flipping the necessary switches, including those for all of the lights. The dark forest in front of them was now completely illuminated due to the six spotlights and the two normal headlights.

"Hey Niles, can we get some air back here?" Lauren called down to him.

"Sure thing," he replied over his shoulder, flipping the switch for the engine fan to blow. Though it was a simple addition, the fan could effectively blow hot air from the engine, or suck the heat out of the tank, leaving it cold. It was definitely one of the first things he installed when they were first issued the tank.

"Thanks man," she called back.

"Yep," he answered.

Pushing lightly on the gas pedals, the tank slowly started moving through all of the trees, pushing them down as it hit them. Niles continued to eat his food as he drove.

The rest of the group in the back didn't budge. Lauren covered her head back up with the sleeping bag, deciding sleep sounded better than food at the moment. She found it easy to sleep more, drifting into a light sleep.

Dylan had never left his sleeping bag, and decided to go back to sleep as well. He zipped the bag all the way up, completely covering him in it.

Kyle was never one to need much sleep. He stayed up with Vegas. The two ate with some idle chatter. Kyle sat on the ground just behind the little opening for the driver's compartment, talking to both Vegas and Niles as they went along.

"Man, it would sure suck to have the tank break down again," Kyle said out loud. Vegas lightly laughed.

"Don't tempt it," Niles warned.

!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!

They traveled for hours, throughout the entire day. It got to be quite boring just sitting there in the cramped space, but none of the them really cared.

They had made it out of the forest after a half an hour of traveling, and were now in the unforgiving desert once again. Dylan and Lauren had awoken a couple hours after going back to sleep, well rested. The hatches were closed to keep sand out, but it wasn't stuffy or hot inside. The fans made sure it was a comfortable 70 degrees inside. Inside, it still seemed like it was the middle of the night, with only the light from the overhead lamp to illuminate the space. There was no way of telling how light it was outside, but none of them really cared to see the sand anyway.

To pass the time, they passed stories back and forth, laughing at the humor in them.

Spirits were light, and overall the team was happy.

!1!11!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!11111!1!1!1!1

_The mission had been successful. Large plumes of black smoke billowed up from the village. Flames climbed up into the air from the destroyed tanks. People scrambled from the vehicles into shelter in fear of them exploding._

_All in a day's work._

_"Yeah cancel that arty firing, all targets are down," Lauren said over the radio to base. She was standing out the loader's hatch looking at the village from a distance through binoculars. _

_They were about six miles outside the village stronghold that they had just successfully blown up with no backup at all. Though the original mission had been to get fixed locations on high-value targets such as tanks, they had never planned on doing that. Instead, they had used a supply of C4 they had taken from one of the ammo lockers in the camp. Since not a lot of C4 was used, there was a plentiful supply for them._

_"What? What did you people do?" the battery commander yelled back from the other side of the radio._

_"We did your job, only we looked cool while doing it! SUCK IT!" Dylan took the radio from Lauren, yelling back into it._

_"Listen to me soldier, you WILL get back to th-"_ _Dylan shut the radio off before the commander could finish._

_"Noob," he mumbled to the commander._

_"Dude, we are going to not get beds for a month now!" Kyle yelled at Dylan from the loader's seat above Dylan._

_"FINE! He is a noob anyway," Dylan yelled back up to Kyle, laughing._

_"He just screwed us over bad," Lauren mumbled to Vegas, covering up her face in disbelief. _

_Vegas stood manning the heavy machine gun for the tank, still looking very shocked as to what had just gone on. He had never done something so….against orders. The thought of being in trouble with the commanders didn't sit well with him. But, he so desperately wanted to become a respected part of the group, and knew if he tried to plead ignorance to the commanders would only set himself apart from them. As reckless as they were, being part of a squad was more than simply having to be with them all the time. They became family, brothers and sisters, people that you would give you life for, and that would give theirs for you._

_That was too much to give up for sleeping in a tent for a month._

_Dylan made a move to turn the radio back on to see if the commander was still yelling at them, but was slapped by Kyle above him._

_"Don't turn it back on ya fuck!" Kyle yelled at him._

_"Dude, what the hell is going on up there?" Niles yelled from the driver's compartment._

_"Dylan, as always," Kyle replied._

_Lauren couldn't help but laugh lowly at the antics that were going on down there. Vegas looked over to her, finding it somewhat entertaining as well._

11!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!11!11111

It was the middle of the night, around 12:30p.m to be exact. They had been traveling all day with nothing spotted. They had the overhead light still on, so at least they could see. The whole day had been spent talking back and forth, eating, or sleeping. Very, very boring for all of them.

Suddenly, Niles stopped the tank. The others in the back shifted forward violently, Kyle almost falling from the turret area into the gunner area onto the floor.

"Woah shit!" Lauren yelled, laughing as Kyle almost fell face first onto the ground. It was a good three-four foot drop that was almost footed by his face. Dylan and Vegas started laughing.

Luckily for Kyle, he was able to grab the very edge of the metal before falling. Dylan and Lauren also grabbed his shoulders to keep him from falling. Vegas was there pushing from the front on his shoulder as well to stop him.

"Jesus Kyle, don't take a face dive into the metal floor ya noob!" Dylan laughed loudly at him, enjoying for once that it wasn't him.

"Wow, that was a fail," Kyle said to himself out loud as the others removed their helping hands from him.

"Yo guys, I think there is a camp out there," Niles called up.

Those riding along froze, and the mood suddenly shifted from happy and playful to serious. Vegas immediately turned to the observation camera. He switched it to night vision, which lit up the entire area. He spotted what looked like a group of tents, resembling a camp. There were hundreds of them, spread out over a huge area. He couldn't see anyone around or anything moving. There weren't any vehicles in sight, but that didn't mean it wasn't a dangerous place.

"It's definitely a camp, but I don't see anyone or anything," Vegas replied, eyes glued to the screen.

"Then I guess we better check it out," Dylan announced happily, eager to get out and move around.

Being cooped up in the very tight area inside the turret all day with very little room to even move around, the group was eager to get out and stretch their legs at least. Plus, they were in need of something to vent energy on, given that they were used to high energy usage during the day. To suddenly not do anything for more than 8 hours was a shock to their systems.

"Better suit up then," Kyle said to them, pulling himself from the shelf-like sleeping area with his arms to the ground. The others didn't protest to the notion, eagerly following Kyle.

Dylan jumped down to the floor below, bending down to grab his things. He picked up his jacket, gloves, face mask, baseball hat, and belt with weapons safety carried in it. He stepped into his combat boots, choosing to leave them untied. He suited up, putting on his jacket and other equipment. He pushed the large backpack he usually carried around far into the corner, choosing to not worry about it for the time being.

"Can one of you hand me my belt please?" Lauren asked, choosing to be lazy and stay up on the ledge, looking down at the three in the tiny area trying to grab their things while not falling over or stepping on each other. She laid with her arms crossed, laying her chin on her hands.

"Get your lazy ass down here and get your stuff," Dylan yelled comically. The others laughed.

"Well I'm trying to help you guys out by staying out of that area so you can get your things," she replied in a smart tone.

Dylan mocked her as he continued to get ready.

"Here you go," Kyle answered her, handing up her leather belt.

"Thanks buddy," she replied, taking it from him. She rolled over on her back, making it much easier to get on in the tight area.

The group finished getting suited up, loading weapons and making sure equipment was ready. They had no idea what was out there, and wanted to be ready for anything. Niles continued to approach the camp, driving the tank closer and closer.

"Hey guys, we're moving in, get on that main gun," Niles yelled back to the others as they were finishing getting ready.

"Give us a MINUTE!" Dylan yelled sarcastically, causing everyone to laugh again. He yelled like he was mad, but in reality, he only did it to be funny.

"Hurry your ass up then!" Niles yelled back up, continuing to drive closer.

Dylan, Vegas, Kyle, and Lauren were frantically gearing up, since it was clear Niles was using time against them to his advantage. They threw on combat boots, tucking the strings into the boot instead of tying them fully. The four could barely move things were so cramped back in their little living compartment.

Then, they were all thrown forward by the tank shifting violently. Kyle and Dylan were thrown up against the wall, and Vegas almost hit his head on the turret loading shoot. All four were instantly assuming they had been attacked, reaching for something to hold onto. Lauren almost fell off the ledge from where she was laying. Luckily for her and her face, Vegas was able to hold her against a face plant into the metal ground. He had grabbed her shoulders, holding her up on the ledge.

"Why you guys always be fallin' off that ledge?" Dylan yelled, laughing.

"I wasn't expecting a sudden stop!" she retorted, pushing herself back up.

"Thanks Vegas, you saved my face from a lot of pain," she regarded him.

"Mah bad guys!" Niles called back, keeping the tank steady. H

"You could have warned us!" Kyle called back to him, recovering from the thunderous jolt.

"I'm sorry, I missed my mouth while taking a drink, but this was fun too," Niles replied over his shoulder, earning a laugh from the others.

"Ok, get that fifty-cal up and mounted, if we haven't been attacked yet, we have time to get that up and firing," Lauren said to Vegas, who was instantly gratified that he was going to get to use his weapon of choice.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Vegas replied, grabbing his heavy helmet and pulling it onto his head. He strapped the strap to his chin to make sure it didn't fall off if this turned into a fire fight. He reached back into the corner of the turret and pulled the barrel of the heavy machine gun forward, then grabbed the body of it.

"Going up, cover me," he announced. Kyle took the heavy lock off the gunner's hatch, pushing it open forcefully. Dylan sat down in the gunner's seat, pressing the buttons on the console to activate the gun systems. The targeting screen came on, and the main gun was now active. He scanned the screen for anything moving, but luckily for them, there was nothing.

Vegas worked fast to get up the hatch, pushing the heavy metal gun up first and laying it flat on the top of the turret. He set the mounting socket on the gun onto the receiving socket for the mount. Putting the securing bolts in place, he cocked the gun back, opening it up. Kyle handed him up some belts of ammunition, which Vegas quickly wrapped around his neck. With one end, he loaded the belt into the gun, cocking it back and readying to fire.

"Fifty-cal ready to fire," Vegas called down.

"Roger that," Niles called up, moving the tank forward once again.

With another person out of the little now-dressing area, Lauren jumped down to the floor, hoisting herself up and out of the sleeping area with her arms. Quickly, she took a hair tie from her wrist, wrapping up her shoulder-length hair into a ponytail. Reaching down to the ground, she picked up her pistol holster, wrapping the device around her right leg. She then grabbed her Desert Eagle pistol, ejecting the magazine to make sure it was full. After seeing it was, she loaded it once again, cocking the gun and placing it in the holster. Stepping into combat boots, she too decided not to tie them.

"I got loader covered," Kyle announced, letting everyone know the gun was good to go. Lauren and Dylan nodded to him.

Niles moved the tank slower and slower, until they were practically crawling. They could hear the treads hit the sand one by one as they moved.

The Noobs of Terror were now entering the camp, and all were on high alert. There were no fires in the camp, and it was a crude one at best. The tents were all ripped, and looked like they had been left to sit in the desert for a week or two now. There were tens of hundreds of tents around, all in random places. It didn't look as if they had planned out roads within the camp or anything.

Dylan swiveled the turret around, searching the tents as they slowly passed them one by one. Vegas was looking for anything that could be of use to them within the tents, spotting mostly bags of clothing and dirt.

These people had obviously left in a hurry.

"Hey Niles, I see a cooler!" Vegas yelled down. Niles stopped the tank as Dylan aimed the main gun for the tent.

"You sure it's a cooler?" Dylan called back up to Vegas, looking at it through his camera.

"Positive," he replied.

"Lauren and I will go check it out, give us some light" Kyle answered, looking to Lauren who nodded.

"We got you covered," Dylan replied, giving Kyle a pat on the shoulder. He moved the spotlights over in the direction of the supposed cooler.

"Oh great, I feel so safe," came his reply. He pulled himself up with his arms, leaping up through the loader's hatch, coming up next to Vegas on the heavy machine gun.

As Kyle made it up through the hatch, his skin was attacked by the cold, dry air of the desert night. It was a stinging cold, contributed by the occasional pelt from the sand in the light breeze. He didn't have his heavy combat coat on, only his white t-shirt.

"It's over there," Vegas said to Kyle, pointing to a tent that was directly to their right about ten yards off. Kyle nodded, pulling his legs out of the hatch and moving down the side of Old Ironside. Lauren followed up the hatch, sliding down the side to get by his side. She too felt the cold air on her arms and shoulders, but like Kyle, she ignored it.

Dylan swung the camera around the circumference of the tank, scanning to make sure they would not be ambushed while keeping the fixed turret spotlights on the others. Vegas kept his aim on the immediate vicinity of the two.

Lauren drew her pistol from the holster, holding it just in case. At the same time, Kyle drew his M9 pistol.

"Go, I'm right behind," Lauren told him, bunching up behind, pistol held down. They moved up quietly to the left side of the large tent, careful to pad their steps. It looked to be a command center, being square in shape and large flaps that were mostly torn down.

Lauren made eye contact with Vegas behind her, who was still locked onto their position. Turning back, she tapped Kyle's shoulder. It was the signal that she was ready. With a forceful push forward, the two secured both the left and right corners of the tent.

Both were confronted with absolutely nothing.

They let their armed hands fall, seeing that there was no threat.

"I knew there wasn't anything here," Lauren remarked sarcastically.

"Hey, less work for us," was Kyle's response. He holstered his M9 pistol, walking towards the cooler that Vegas had spotted.

"Come on, let's get this back to the tank," he said. She followed him, holstering her weapon as well.

He kneeled down in front of the tan colored box, lifting the hinged lid off.

"Jackpot," Lauren said, seeing its contents.

Inside were ten packaged rations, as well as two small thermoses of what they assumed was water.

"We won't have to eat Dylan anymore at least," Kyle remarked.

"Grab the food, I got the water," she told him, taking the thermoses off the top of the pile. They were small, no more than a liter in size, but it was enough to last them for a while. Kyle grabbed the packaged food from the cooler, standing up to follow Lauren back to the tank.

"We got room in the coolers?" Lauren asked Vegas, who only laughed at his own success.

"Sure do," he replied. "Hey Dylan, open that cooler down there, we went shopping."

"About time we got something other than sandwiches, what are they?" he asked, getting up from his gunner seat and opening the cooler that still laid on the floor of the tank.

Lauren handed up the thermoses to Vegas, who set them on top of the tank. Kyle handed the boxes up to Vegas one by one. He looked at them as he handed them down to Dylan.

"You're going to be happy, more sandwich stuff!" Vegas called down, laughing at the cruel irony. Dylan took them down, packing them in the cooler. The rations contained dried beef as well as peanut butter and bread that was probably stale.

"FUCK MY LIFE!" he yelled sarcastically, angrily throwing the boxes into the cooler. The others all laughed. Lauren and Kyle both jumped up onto the tank, sitting on either side of the main gun, aimed straight ahead. They held onto it to keep from falling when they started moving.

When Vegas had handed down all the rations as well as the thermoses, Dylan stood up through the loaders hatch to complain more.

"I'm so sick of sandwiches, seriously why can't we find like, hot pockets or steak and potatoes?" he ranted.

"Dude, we are in the middle of a desert…" Kyle replied.

"I'm pretty sure neither cows nor grocery stores are in the desert, and if they are, we are pretty unlucky," Vegas added. This was the first camp they had come across so far, and it was unlikely that they would come across another.

"Is everyone back or are we still waiting?" Niles called up, unable to see what was going on up top.

"We're all good, keep moving," Dylan answered. The tank began to move forward again, slowly.

They scouted the camp anywhere the tank could get, looking for anything they could use. Lauren and Kyle were the designated go-getters, but they never strayed far from the tank, which was a mobile base in their minds. It was their home away from home, their Headquarters, their lifeline.

In their search, they had found more coolers in tents scattered around, but most were empty. They had managed to get some more thermoses with water in them, which they collected in their cooler. Other than that, they found no more food or other supplies. Weapons and ammunition were gone, as well as any vehicle supplies or firewood.

The squad was nearing the edges of the camp's perimeter, and were getting ready to get back into the tank to continue traveling for a couple of hours until it was time to sleep again. Kyle had gotten back into the tank as well as Dylan, who took up their positions as the gunner and loader. Lauren stayed out on the tank's hull, keeping Vegas company at his post.

It had been another uneventful day unfortunately.

"You think we will find anyone out here?" Vegas asked Lauren truthfully. She took a bit to respond, thinking about what would happen if they didn't find anything. Eventually, their food and water would run out, whether they admitted it or not. There was really nothing to scavenge for in the desert, and there was no water to get. Their survival depended on finding more camps or cities.

"I doubt it. We are in this huge desert, with no idea where we are. There are no landmarks, no features, nothing to navigate. The possibility of us finding a camp is very slim," she replied.

"It would be a lot easier if the GPS would work," Vegas added. Lauren nodded.

"Yeah it would, we'd actually know where we are, but unfortunately it doesn't, so we're out of luck," she answered. They had a mobile GPS unit, but it had never really worked, and the team had never needed it, so never bothered to get a new one or have it fixed.

Real smart move.

"What if this camp is a forward outpost? We could be getting close to a city," Vegas said, looking around at the tents. They were not set up in any fashion, and it made them wonder if these were even soldiers that had set them up. With such little plan or thought into the configurations, they would expect more out of a military.

"If it is, next drinks on me," she replied sarcastically, doubting that it was an outpost. She was not normally wrong on these things, but it wouldn't be the first time.

"I'm going to hold you to that," he replied, smiling.

Then, the tank slowed to a stop. The bright spotlights were shining on a massive object about twenty yards in front of them. It was a very odd texture, looking almost like plastic. It was wrinkly and camouflaged a dark tan. Lauren and Vegas looked at it carefully, unsure of what to make of it.

"What the hell is that?" Niles called up to them.

Dylan and Kyle looked at it through the cameras, though they had no answer for Niles.

"I have no idea what that is, but its fuckin' big," Kyle said.

"Think I should go check it out?" Lauren asked the group.

"Go for it," Vegas replied.

"Get it, it could be something cool," Dylan called up to her.

"Cover me noobs, I'm going in," she said, pushing herself off the hull of the tank and landing on the ground. She drew her Deagle once again, holding it downward as she approached. The light behind her created a massive shadow off her, shining up onto the object.

All were focused on the object. Vegas gripped his machine gun tightly, holding the aim steady. Dylan held the main gun targeted in the dead center of the object, while Kyle kept his eyes on the monitor, ready to jump and reload as quickly as possible.

The shape of the object was odd; it had a large circle shape at the top, like something was holding it up. It formed a large cylinder shape, and they were unable to make out any other lines to see what it was.

Getting closer to it, Lauren was able to touch it. She poked at it with her pistol. It was lightweight and plastic-like in sound and texture.

"Hey guys, it's a tarp!" she yelled back to Vegas, who was the only one that could barely hear her.

"She said it's a tarp," Vegas relayed her message down to the others.

"There has to be something under it then that they were trying to keep hidden," Kyle added, thinking what it could be doing there.

"She's going for it," Dylan announced, watching on the monitor as she moved right up next to the tarp. The other's quit talking and focused. Keeping her pistol aimed at the tarp, she reached out with her left hand, grabbing the tarp. She pulled on it, backing up to get it all the way off. It came off fairly easy.

When the tarp fell to the ground, revealing what was under it, the squad was speechless.

"Oh…my…god…" Vegas muttered under his breath.

"Holy shit…" Dylan said out loud, effectively expressing what the others were feeling as well.

"Dude no way!" Niles yelled up to the others, seeing it through his cameras.

Lauren couldn't look away from it, and didn't really know what to think.

"HAHAHAHA! EPIC SICK NOOBS!" Lauren yelled back in a fit of happiness.

The group had just happened upon an Apache Longbow helicopter.

"I call gunner!" Kyle yelled, jumping up as fast as he could from his position and running towards the chopper.

"Hey guys, isn't that the chopper that was captured from Sergeant Adams a couple months back?" Dylan asked.

"A2117, I thought that was the one," Vegas replied, seeing the numbers painted n the side. He had been told about how Sergeant Adams' beloved Apache was captured by an enemy undercover agent a while back, and they had not really tried to locate it, chalking up the loss. He had been upset about it.

"Doesn't look like they really needed it," Dylan added, seeing that it was just sitting there.

Lauren opened the top door on the chopper, while Kyle opened the bottom one. They both climbed up the side, getting into the cockpit of the chopper. The seats were black, slick leather, and in front of them was their respective control panels. The various buttons and switches were no problem for these two, they had both had piloting experience during training. Lauren was an exceptional chopper pilot, often performing maneuvers that even the superiors wouldn't try. Kyle was an excellent gunner, and never missed a target.

The helicopter was painted a dull black color, which made it invisible in the darkness. It had 4 long, swept rotors on top. The nose had a large bulb on it, containing different camera arrangements. On top of the rotors was a large doughnut shaped object, which was the Longbow weapons system. On the left side painted in full color was a large Bald Eagle swooping down from the side with an American Flag streaming behind it in a patriotic fashion. On the other side of the hull, it read "Screamin' Eagles" in sharp, white font.

Sergeant Adams was a very artistic person.

"Comms on," Lauren said to Kyle in front of her through the opened door, taking the helmet from the rack and putting it on. Pushing up the sunshade and making sure the microphone was in place, she activated the communication system on the dash. Using the device they all wore on her first finger and thumb, she opened a communication line with those in the tank.

Holding the glove close to her face, she said "Comms active, channel 45.6."

Dylan received the transmission. "Roger that, going online."

"Comms on guys," he announced, taking his own headset off the holder.

"Hey Vegas, get down here, I need a loader," Dylan told Vegas, who was still posted at the machine gun.

"Got it," he replied, quickly detaching the machine gun from the post. He handed it down to Dylan, who took it and pushed it in the back for storage. Vegas closed the hatch, sealing it tight.

Closing the chopper doors tightly, both got situated within the vehicle.

"Comm check 1, 2," Lauren spoke into the mic to make sure local communication was fine between her and Kyle.

"Loud and clear, weapons coming online," he replied back, turning switches to turn on all his sensors and guns. He had a camera mounted on the nose of the chopper for various views such as night and thermal vision. He also had control of a chain gun mounted directly under the belly of the chopper which was controlled by his head movements as well as a joystick. He also had control of the missiles, flares, and rocket pods.

"Longbow going online," Lauren said to him, turning the Longbow weapons system on. Their heads up displays came on in front of them.

"This is Ironside, you guys getting anything?" Dylan transmitted over the system. Both Kyle and Lauren heard it on their side.

"This is Eagle, is everyone online in there?" Kyle asked.

"Niles online," Niles said.

"Vegas online," Vegas replied.

"This is Ironside, we are all online, your rotors are clear," Dylan said, looking through his cameras.

"Motors starting," Lauren said, pressing the large power button on the dash. The whine of the motor started and the blades began to turn, slowly at first, but gained speed quickly. They both strapped themselves in with the harnesses. That whine turned into a roar of wind and sand as they spun quickly.

All of the buttons lit up a dull teal color, revealing a dash board filled with the things. The choppers lights were turned on, having a bottom facing headlight as well as fin and tail lights.

"Clear for take-off," Dylan said to them. He acted like their air traffic control, giving them information on things around them and giving them clearance information. They worked together well.

"Roger that, Eagle going up," Lauren replied, gently pulling back on the stick. The chopper began to levitate, leaving the ground. A huge cloud of dust and sand covered the tank as they lifted off the ground.

"Ironside moving out," Niles said over the mic, pressing on the gas pedal. The tank moved forward, lighting the way with its headlights. It quickly made it up to cruising speed, about fifty miles per hour. A trail of dust followed behind them.

"Roger that Ironside, we're right above you," Kyle replied. Lauren turned the chopper around, following the tank closely. The speed felt like a crawl to them, able to cruise at almost one-hundred and fifty miles per hour. But, they needed to stick together in the unknown desert. They were just able to see the tank in front of them, letting it lead the way with the headlights, making it easier for them to see. They stayed close to the ground, to avoid any detection.

"Hey Kyle you got Hydras and Hellfires?" she asked, referring to the types of missiles that were equipped.

"Yep, Hydra rocket pods and Hellfire missiles on both sides," he replied.

"Nice, total boss," she replied. They were armed to the teeth with this helicopter.

"Sure is," he said.

!11!1!1!1!1111!1!1!1!1!1!1111!1!111

They travelled for another two hours, retaining the same formation. They talked back and forth, as if they were all in the tank right next to each other still. It was very dark. No one could see anything more than a couple miles in front of them. There was no dust storm, which made it easier to see at least. None of them could see anything for miles. There was just, nothing.

The crews were getting tired. Though the day had been mostly uneventful, the time spent awake was taking its toll.

"You guys thinking about sleeping soon?" Niles asked over the radio.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired," Dylan added.

"Same," Kyle said.

"Doesn't matter to me, you want to shut it down right here?" Lauren asked.

"The closer the better, I need to sleep," Niles said.

"Pick a spot, we'll land right by you," Lauren told him.

"Ok, hold on back there, we're shutting down," Niles said to the others, bringing the tank to a soft stop.

"Coming down," Lauren said, slowing the chopper to a hover. She let the altitude fall, dropping it down steadily. Holding just above the ground, she made sure everything was straight. Gently, she touched down the tires to the ground.

"Touchdown," she said.

"Systems going offline," Kyle added, shutting down all of his targeting equipment. Lauren shut down the engines, letting the rotors slow. The lights in the cabin turned off, and they took off their harnesses.

"Open the hatch for us, going offline and coming in," Lauren said, getting ready to turn the comms station off.

"Roger that, hatch opening, Ironside out," Vegas replied, getting up to open the hatch.

They took their helmets off and opened the doors, closing them behind them and walked towards the tank, which was only about twenty feet in front of them.

Niles shut down the engine and headlights. The inside cabin lights came on, letting them all see.

Lauren and Kyle jumped up the side of the tank, moving down the hatch. Kyle made sure to close it after they both got in. Both were still pumped after finding that Apache.

"Dude, that was SO epic!" Kyle exclaimed to the others. Niles showed up, sitting in the corner with the others.

"I'm surprised you guys didn't crash and burn," Dylan said sarcastically, earning a laugh from Vegas and Niles.

"Hey, I'm a good pilot, I had training and everything," she said.

"You did? Wow, didn't know that," Vegas said.

"Yeah, in training I was actually going to be a chopper pilot, but I decided a sniper was more my style," she explained, "and now look where I am."

The others chuckled.

"Yeah, with me, because I'm awesome," Dylan said jokingly.

"Sure you are Dylan, sure you are," Kyle said, patting his back. Lauren just laughed at him, leaning up against the opposite side of the space.

"Sorry I can't stay up with you guys, but I'm just exhausted, skipping eating, just gonna sleep," Niles said to the others, giving them a good night. He was the only one that did anything all day, driving through the entire day. It was draining on his mind, especially non-stop.

"Hey no problem, see ya tomorrow buddy," Lauren replied, waving him off.

"Yeah I'm with Niles, I'm tired as hell," Kyle added, climbing up into the back turret. He got into his sleeping bag, covering his head from the overhead light.

"K, night," Lauren said to him, not really feeling all that tired. The rest chimed in with their wishes as well.

"I bet you never thought you would get messed up in anything like this did you?" Lauren asked Vegas, though didn't specifically address him. Though each felt like they had known each other for ages, it had only been about a week since they were introduced.

"Not in my wildest dreams no, but I wanted to," he replied.

"You ever regret joining?" she asked.

"Never. I knew from the time I was a kid that I wanted to serve my country in any way I could, and if it means I have to cross a desert with zombies on the other side of a tank, that's what I want," he responded.

She smiled, looking down as she slid off her boots, leaving them on the floor. She sighed.

"You're a good man Vegas, a brave one at that. I just hope we get passed this to see more action," she said.

Vegas removed his helmet, setting it down from his seated position.

"We will, after all I have seen so far, the one thing I have learned is that you guys never fail. There is no other group I would put so much faith in," he answered truthfully.

"You're a trusting man too, to put so much faith in a squad with our reputation who you just joined a week ago," she laughed. "But don't worry, you're one of us, and we never leave a man behind."

He smiled, feeling very safe knowing that they thought of him as one of them. That was what he had strived for from the beginning, the be accepted.

"Plus, it takes a certain degree of insanity to be one of us, which we are working on with you," Dylan chimed in, smiling.

"That's true, I don't think a sane person would ever do half the things we do," Lauren said, chuckling.

"I have to admit, that first night I was with you and we went on that mission and destroyed all the tanks, I was scared out of my mind to go against HQ's orders. When you guys started blowing things up, I didn't know what to do," Vegas explained.

"Eh, screw HQ, they want everything done by the book, and we don't play that game. We didn't waste arty shells, didn't alert the enemy to where we were, and only hit the targets. Simply, quick, and easy," Dylan said.

"But, I had just gotten off basic training, it's hammered to you that you don't ever go against orders," Vegas said.

"Right, and I understand that, but we shocked that out of ya," Lauren said.

"Hey, anything it takes to be a Noob of Terror," he added.

"That's right buddy. Now we should all get some sleep, we'll need it for more travels tomorrow," Lauren said, moving to remove the holster and belt from her being, leaving them on the ground by her boots.

"Yeah I'm wiped out, see ya guys," Dylan said, removing his combat garb as well and climbing up into the turret next to Kyle. One by one, both Lauren and Vegas moved up into the turret as well, Vegas switching the light off on his way up. None of them had any true idea of how things would play out, but they were convinced that whatever happened, they could handle.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading! Next chapters are going to get pretty epic, stay tuned!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

_Annnnndddd we're back! Sorry for late update, I've actually had this written for quite a few months now, just never uploaded it. Been pretty busy with the squad and matches, as well as school and stuff. But now that school is done, I have quite a bit of time on my hands. Anyway, without further wait, here is the next chapter!_

* * *

><p><em>"We are so awesome," Dylan said to the others around him, still exhilarated from the mission they had just completely without any clearance. They were supposed to only mark high value targets for long range artillery to come and mop up later, but "no" wasn't a valid order with them. Instead of waiting, they had completely taken it into their own hands, using the C4 from the ammo locker they had raided back at the camp. <em>

_"They never even saw it coming," Kyle added, sitting quite proudly in his loader's seat, facing backwards. He had his feet propped up on the turret opening, leaning back in a relaxed pose. Dylan was stretched out in the gunner's seat, facing the back of the tank. Both were looking at Lauren and Vegas, who were sitting in the back._

_"They never do," Lauren added._

_They had been about an hour outside the base, and had been heading back for about fifty minutes. The base was nearing. Since then, they had turned the radio back on and were listening idly to chatter over it. They didn't expect there to be much chatter, but still, for it to be completely silent was very unusual. The whole time they were returning to the base, they never heard a single word from the radio. It did not raise any concern in them, but it was definitely strange._

_The group mostly slept on the way back. Though they were still pumped up from their mission, they found it easy to rest quietly._

_Vegas was unable to sleep through the whole trip. He was still shocked and worried about what would happen to them when they returned to case. He knew the officers would be less than pleased with him and the squad, and he just kept thinking about what they would do to them. The words "Dishonorably Discharged" kept flashing through his mind. _

_The group could sense that Vegas was worried about their punishment. Being the new guy, they understood why he would be. Fresh out of basic training, they expected him to want to do everything by the book._

_It rarely worked like that out in the field._

_"Hey Vegas, you ok over there?" Lauren asked him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to her from his position on the floor in the corner. She was sitting next to him in the opposite corner._

_"No, I'm very worried about what will happen to us when we get back," he replied. It made him feel almost like he was unable to do anything right and clouded his mind._

_"Hey man, don't worry about what the arty commander said, he hates us to begin with, and he's the world's hugest douche bag," Kyle told him from up top inside the turret, laying down on his stomach. The rest of the group agreed with Kyle._

_"Yeah he's all bark and no bite. The worst Watson will do is give us a slap on the wrist and a stern 'don't do it again'," Lauren added._

_"Yeah but, I just have never been in trouble with a commanding officer before, and you guys know how basic training is," Vegas said._

_"Yeah, we understand how you feel, never go against an officer, respect at all times, we know the drill," Dylan offered from the gunner's seat, trying to make him feel better._

_"We're borderline special ops force though, the only reason it's not official is because the Commander of our battalion won't let us go, too much of an asset," Kyle added for him. _

_"Plus too good of a gig here," Niles added from the driver's seat. The others agreed._

_"You must have been good for the Commander to put you with us," Lauren said with a light laugh. She earned a smile out of him, making them all feel better._

_"If we're special ops, why do we get all the shitty equipment?" Dylan asked, referring to the tank._

_"Because we can handle it," Lauren replied. _

_"Don't worry about it Vegas, it'll be fine," Kyle said again. Vegas gave them a genuine smile._

_"Thanks guys," he thanked._

_In the driver's seat, Niles watched the base come into view. There were multiple large, white lights that shined down on the far edge of the camp where all the vehicles were parked. There was also a guard post and a tall barred gate lined with barbed wire leading into the compound. _

_"Guys we're home," Niles yelled back to the others as he approached the gate slowly. "You got sign in someone?"_

_"I'll do it," Dylan replied back, reaching up to the loader's hatch and unlocking it. Niles pulled the tank right up to the gate, headlights shining brightly against the metal bars. He pushed the hatch open, standing up to talk to the guard at the post. _

_He looked around, seeing no one at the post._

_"Guys, there isn't anyone here, are you sure you didn't run him over?" Dylan called down._

_"I didn't feel us run over anything," Niles replied, knowing that he was being sarcastic._

_"Well there isn't anyone here, they must have taken the night off," he replied._

_"Get the gate so we can get in and go to bed, I'm dead tired," Niles told him._

_"Ok ok fine," Dylan said, crawling out of the hatch and moving down the side of the tank. He walked up into the guard station, which was a little rectangle with large bulletproof windows. Looking at the control panel, he typed in their tank's ID number on the keyboard: 1337n3wb50fn07. Pressing the enter button, the gate light turned green and the gate opened for the tank to enter._

_Dylan waved them through, as Niles drive the tank through the gate. Surprisingly, Dylan remembered to close the gate after leaving. Niles stopped the tank, and Dylan jumped onto the hull, riding along as Niles then continued to move through the parking lots. There were many tanks including other M1 Abrams and M2 Bradleys, personnel carriers including Strykers and M113s, Humvees, and other specialty vehicles parked side by side in the vast area. _

_Each tread hit the finely paved area with a defined clap. It seemed to echo through the cooled desert air as they made their way towards their tent._

_They passed through the parking lot and made their way into the main camp. Though they were not supposed to have tanks in the camp area, they had never listened to that. They always parked it right up next to their tent. It made it easier to do work on, which it seemed to always need._

_Kyle stood up through the loader's hatch, looking out over the large spotlights mounted on the tank's turret._

_"Where the hell is everyone?" Kyle asked Dylan._

_"I don't know, I haven't seen anyone yet," he replied, looking out over the camp. It was completely dark. There were no lights on, no movement, no people. _

_Everyone was gone._

_Kyle moved up out of the hatch going to sit on the other side of the main gun on the hull by Dylan as they continued to move around the camp. There was an eerie feeling within the camp as they started to pass empty tents all around them._

_Lauren and Vegas joined the two through the loader's and machine gunner's hatches, immediately being taken over by the same dangerous feeling as Kyle and Dylan felt._

_They knew better than to not listen to the feeling._

_"What the hell happened here?" Lauren asked, seeing the wasteland that was once a bustling army base. The area was just dark, so dark that they could not see inside any of the tents they passed. They couldn't tell if anyone was inside them, or what had happened._

_They looked around with confused looks on their faces. Where had everyone gone? There was no destruction, everything was still intact. The lights in the parking lot were still on, so the power was still working. Why would an entire battalion just up and leave within a couple hours? And without telling them?_

_"I'm not liking this guys," Lauren said with a worried tone._

_"Me neither, this is kinda freaking me out," Kyle added._

_"We haven't had radio contact with anyone since the artillery commander yelled at us," Vegas said._

_"Ye-OH SHIT!" Dylan yelled, grabbing onto the gun as if for dear life. Niles stopped the tank quickly at the sight. They all looked on with confusion and horror._

_In front of them were two bodies that had been ripped to shreds. Their clothes and skin were completely torn away, leaving their bones and organs free to the open air. Pieces of flesh lay around them, soaking in a pool of thick blood. They looked like they had been trying to attack each other, angry expressions on what was left of their faces._

_"Jesus Christ in heaven…" Lauren gasped slowly at the carnage. _

_"Ok seriously, what the FUCK happened here?" Dylan yelled, seriously confused, as they all were._

_"I don't know, but I don't think we should stay here," Kyle said. Niles kept moving forward, revving the engine and passing over the bodies._

_"Guys, we should get our shit and leave, seriously this is fucked up. Something came through and wiped out an entire battalion base camp, this is not safe!" Niles yelled up from the driver's seat._

_"Yeah I agree with Niles, we need to get our asses out of here," Lauren agreed. All were shaken, and didn't know what to think._

_Niles continued to drive the tank through the tight roads towards their tent. Luckily for them, it was towards the edge, and they didn't have far to go until they reached it._

_"Alright guys this is grab and bag, get everything you can and do it fast," Kyle told them._

_"I'll rack it, you guys hand it up to me," Lauren said, moving back on the turret to the racks that lined the outside of the turret._

_Kyle and Dylan jumped down as soon as the tank stopped, running the five feet to their tent. Niles shined the headlights on the tent so they could see. They frantically grabbed at the sleeping bags that were left out in the sand, quickly rolling and tying them up. They ran back to Lauren, who took them and tied them down to the racks._

_They ran back for coolers, grabbing both and any other containers of food they had laying around and packing them in. Lauren took the coolers from them as they brought them to her, pushing them into the racks and securing them._

_"Come on guys hurry, we need to get out of here," Lauren said, working swiftly. _

_"We're going we're going," Dylan said, running back for more stuff. He grabbed Niles' tool kit and all that he would need to make repairs while Kyle started to take their bags of clothing. One by one, things were packed onto the tank._

_They went back for more._

_"Leave the tent," Kyle said as they gathered more things, as much as they could get. _

_"No problem there," Dylan said, taking an armload full of bags._

_From behind the two in the tent, a creature with glowing red eyes quietly approached. It was almost human, though any human-like intelligence had been stripped away entirely. It growled deeply, creating a rumbling sound._

_Kyle stopped, sitting motionless for a moment. He had heard something._

_"Did you hear that?" he asked Dylan, who had stopped as well._

_"Hear what?" he asked._

_"A growling sound," he answered._

_"No I didn't hear it, but that is our queue to get the hell out of here," Dylan replied. _

_Suddenly, into the beam of light, a tall creature appeared. They both saw it._

_"HOLY SHIT RUN!" Kyle yelled, jumping to his feet and booking it towards the tank._

_"HOLD ON!" Niles yelled, seeing it through his view. He gunned the tank's engine, pushing it forward quickly and running the creature over, trapping it under the tank's immense weight. They could hear bones crushing and a loud shriek that was quickly silenced by the tank crushing the creature's skull._

_"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Lauren yelled, seeing everything unfold in front of her._

_"I have no fucking idea, but I am NOT staying here anymore to find out, get me the fuck out of here," Kyle yelled, handing his stuff off to Lauren and jumping up onto the tank as fast as he could. Dylan followed with the same speed, both of them going down the hatches, not wanting to see anymore of what had just happened._

_Lauren finished tying things down, following them down the hatch. _

_"Niles, lets get the fuck outta here, I don't care where you go, just go!" she yelled, closing the hatch. Vegas followed her down, closing his hatch as well._

_"Fine by me," Niles said, pushing the tank backwards using the backup camera. He maneuvered through the tents, being less careful with trying not to hit them, knocking over a couple things as they sped through the roads._

_"Holy shit that was fucked up," Kyle said, still extremely shaken from seeing that monster._

_"I seriously almost shit my pants guys," Dylan announced, though it was somewhat unneeded information._

_Niles turned the tank around, speeding through the parking lot and completely bowling over the gate they had closed, running it over with ease. They raced out of the base as fast as they could go. They had no idea where they would go next, or what they would do, they just knew that they no longer had a home base, no longer had a battalion or a safe zone. They were on their own in the desert, with no idea what was going on, and a limited food and water supply._

_"I have a feeling we're on our own now," Vegas muttered lowly._

!1!1!11!11!1!11!111!1!1!

This morning wasn't like the rest. It was pleasant in the fact that no one had been woken up, but the atmosphere was different. It felt almost like a summer day, the feel of the outside air and the warmth of the sun-warmed atmosphere. It was refreshing.

Lauren was just waking up, barely conscious of what was around her. The space around her was very light, much different than what the overhead light could do. It was very dry and hot inside. She turned her head towards the left to see if anyone else was still there. Dylan still laid on his stomach, sleeping soundly. Neither Kyle nor Vegas were there.

She looked up, seeing bright blue sky through both the open hatches. Blurry clouds were smudged across what little sky she could see. Well, that explained the temperature difference.

Rubbing her eyes in a tired fashion, she stretched her arms and legs forward. Yawning, she moved onto her back, pushing the sleeping bag back. She got up, moving off the ledge of the sleeping area. She could hear the voices of Kyle and Vegas above from outside. They were talking back and forth about Kyle's experiences in the army with the N.O.T squad before Vegas had come.

Stepping up the ledges, she poked her head out of the hatch to see the two men's backs towards her. Vegas was sitting on the turret top looking at Kyle, who was sitting on the hull of the tank.

The sunlight hurt her eyes. It was very warm outside. The sky was bright blue, save for a couple clouds. The sand was very light tan in the light. Radiant heat waves rose from the sand, only exaggerating how hot it really was. It was at least ninety degrees from what she could feel in her tank top, but she was sure it was higher than that.

She climbed up the hatch, making sure to make sound as she did so the others would realize she was there. Sure enough, Kyle saw her, and then Vegas followed his sight.

"Morning Lauren," Vegas greeted, moving over from his spot to leave room for her to sit as well.

"Yo," Kyle said.

"Hey guys," Lauren replied, moving to sit on the turret. Both Kyle and Vegas were in their white t shirts, Kyle having the sleeves rolled up all the way. They had their black shield sunglasses on, both with a bottle of water in hand.

"You need a drink?" Vegas asked, offering her a drink from his bottle.

Lauren pulled her hair up into a pony tail, nodding to him.

"Yeah I'll take a sip, thanks," she replied, taking the bottle from his hand. She took a sip from the bottle, handing it back to him.

"Niles has been awake for a while now," Kyle said, looking over to him. He was over at the chopper, only about ten yards away. He had his white shirt on as well, sleeves rolled all the way up. He also had on his combat pants and boots. Next to him was his tool kit and various tools scattered in the sand around him. He was standing up by one of the side weapons fins, installing something on it.

"He said he's installing headlights on the chopper so we don't have to rely on thermal vision or Ironside's spotlights. He's already got one on the other side," Kyle added.

"They are the blue ones," Vegas said.

"Total awesome," Lauren responded. "Did he install a switch for them?"

"He's going to, hasn't gotten that far yet," Kyle answered. Lauren looked at the two, smiling and shaking her head.

"Why the hell is he carrying around two headlights anyway?" she asked comically. Both chuckled, thinking the same thing.

"I have no idea," Vegas replied, looking out at the desert. It truly was endless. There wasn't a breeze at all, everything was calm. It was nice to finally be able to sit out and relax, even if it was scorching hot. The heat rising from the sand distorted the horizon, even if there was nothing to distort. No trees, grasses, buildings, anything. Just sand.

"Morning Niles!" Lauren called over to him. She raised her hand up, giving him a wave. He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Hey morning Lauren!" he called back, giving her a wave back. "I'll be over when I'm done!"

"Take your time buddy!" she responded. They sat there, watching as Niles worked away on the chopper. They very much enjoyed being in each other's company. They were all they had at this point, but none could ask for more.

"She is a nice day today, not even a sandstorm," Lauren said, breaking the comfortable silence.

"I hear ya, couldn't ask for a better day," Vegas replied.

"Too bad we have to spend it traveling ," Kyle said, taking a sip from his water bottle.

"Eh, it's nice, we can ride outside and have the hatches open," Lauren said.

"Yeah, but we'll be in the chopper, no windows in that," Kyle said to Lauren.

"True, didn't think about that. Oh well, we'll have to deal with it," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah," he agreed.

They turned around suddenly, hearing a loud thud sound from inside the tank.

"FUCK!" they heard Dylan yell.

"I guess Dylan's up," Lauren replied, laughing loudly. The others laughed as well, as Dylan stood up from the floor.

"Nice fall dude," Kyle mocked him.

"Sure woke me up," he replied, popping up slowly from the hatch. Lauren patted him on the back as he came up the hatch, coming to sit on the opposite side of the hatch as Lauren and Vegas, closest to Kyle.

"How ya doing today?" Lauren asked him with a smile.

"Not bad at all, how about yourself?" he asked.

"Can't complain, it's a sunny day out, and I'm sitting here with my best friends, I don't know what could be better," she said.

"Yeah I hear that, I just want to lay out here all day," Dylan said, laying back on his back, covering his eyes with his hands.

"And get sunburned?" Kyle asked with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, good point, not fun," Dylan replied.

"Definitely not," Vegas added in.

"Oh well, I can tell when I start to burn," he announced to the others, who just laughed and agreed with him.

They sat and watched as Niles, continued to work on the chopper. The group talked about whatever seemed to come up, which seemed to change subjects every couple minutes from how they didn't want to travel today, to how nice a swimming pool would be at the moment. The cooler had been brought up, and the group ate and drank to their hearts' content. From the back storage on the racks of the tank, Vegas had brought out his Toughbook laptop. The rest had known he had it, but it hadn't been brought out before to conserve the battery life.

Vegas opened his music library, and they set it out to let it play its tunes. It played a light, happy tune that put everyone in a calm mood.

Against even their own judgment, they had joined Dylan in laying out in the sun.

Kyle leaned against the sloped armor of the turret. Lauren liked the idea, and joined on the other side, copying his idea. It worked quite well. The top of the turret was better for tanning the back, so Vegas and Dylan would switch with Lauren and Kyle every once in a while to keep from burning one side.

Niles was almost complete with the headlight installments. The lights were mounted, he was just putting in the switch for them on the console now. He took the board off the console, revealing all the wiring for the buttons and switches. Looking closely at them all, he located the wires that were for the tailfin lights. He soldered the new headlight lamp wires to the existing wires. He reattached them to the button, securing them with solder. He lined the buttons back up with the wires on the board, and pressed the board back into place on the dash.

He jumped down from the chopper's pilot seat, landing in a cloud of dust. He brushed off his hands, creating a plume of dust.

"Hey Lauren, the lights are finished!" he yelled over to the ground, who was lazily doing nothing but laying in the sun. Lauren sat up from the top of the turret, laying on her stomach.

"Ok, coming," she yelled back, stretching. She wiped the sweat from her brow, shaking her hand to dry it. The liquid evaporated almost instantly.

"Hey Kyle, the chopper is ready, let's go check it out," she said to him to her left laying on his stomach as well. He groaned lazily in response.

She pushed herself up to her feet, climbing down the side of the tank. The sand immediately made it feel twenty degrees hotter. Kyle was getting up slowly behind her as she began to talk towards the chopper.

"Nice job Niles, those look awesome," she praised him, looking at the mounted headlights. They would help greatly while traveling in the dark.

"Try them out, the switch is the same one for the tail lights," he said, the door to the chopper still open.

"Sweet," she responded, pulling herself up into the pilot's seat. She turned on the battery of the chopper, so the motor wouldn't start. She located the light button, and pressed it. The new headlights immediately lit up, shining a bright, blue tinted beam into the tank. The rest of the group still on the tank looked over to see the lights, but were blinded by the brightness.

Kyle finally made it over by Niles and Lauren, his attention on the lights as well.

"Nice work man, those are really bright," he said to Niles, giving him a solid pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks, lucky I packed them incase Old Ironside's went out," he replied.

Lauren shut all the power off in the chopper, leaving the cockpit and closing the door.

"Very nice work dude, works like a charm," she said to him, her too patting him on the shoulder.

Niles began gathering all of his tools into his metal tool box, shaking them free of sand before putting them in. He shut the box, locking it down.

"It's what I do," he simply said, smiling. The group of three walked back to the tank, Niles with his toolbox in hand. He stopped by the racks on the rear of the tank, pushing the toolbox up safely into the racks. Lauren, Kyle, and Niles climbed back up onto the tank, joining Vegas and Dylan who were still laying on the sloped armor.

"h shit this metal is hot," Niles said, barely touching the armor and getting burned. He was having second thoughts about laying down on it, after getting just a touch of it.

"Ahh don't worry, you'll get used to it," Dylan said to him, eyes closed laying in the sun.

"Shouldn't we keep moving guys?" Niles said to the ground from the ground, refusing to lay down on the hot metal.

"Don't you want to relax a bit?" Lauren asked him, her and Kyle moving back to their spots on top of the turret.

"I've been in the sun for a while now, I've gotten enough for today," he said, "besides, I'm not tired."

"What time is it?" Kyle asked. Vegas heard him, raising his arm to look at his wrist watch.

"1:24," he announced.

"Ehhh, we probably should get moving" Lauren relentlessly agreed, not really wanting to leave her spot in the sun. Relaxation was something they didn't really have the luxury of, and it was nice to finally get a little bit of it.

"Otherwise we are gonna be traveling all night again, and it's hard to drive while tired," Niles said to the others.

"Hey man, you're the driver, we leave when you want to," Lauren said to him.

"Yeah we aren't gonna get very far without you Niles," Kyle added.

"Plus, I think we've had enough sun for one day," Vegas added, feeling very hot and starting to burn. Everyone was sweating heavily, and dehydration could become a problem if they stayed out any longer.

"Yeah let's just pack up and leave, I've had my fill of sun for the day," Dylan said, getting up and stretching his arms.

Lauren grabbed a bottle of water for herself, pouring half of it into Kyle's empty bottle, so they each didn't take a new one.

Niles reluctantly climbed up the side of the heated tank, wincing at the white hot metal against his hands.

Dylan and Vegas were in the process of waking up from their relaxing rest. They both climbed up the sloped armor, making their ways towards the hatches.

"I'm gonna get everything started up, same comm channel?" Niles asked, standing halfway down the main hatch.

"Yep, I'll start it up as soon as we get everything started," Lauren said, standing up on the turret. Kyle stood up next to her. Dylan and Vegas both went down the gunner hatch, gearing up with their headsets.

"Gotcha, see ya on the road," Niles said, waving them off as he went down the loader's hatch. He moved through the others to get to his driver's seat. He went through the tight space, sitting back in his reclining seat. It felt good to lay back for a bit, after being leaned over and crouched down all morning working on the chopper. He pressed the ignition button for the tank, starting the engine with a loud roar. He took his headset from the rack, putting it on.

"Hey can we get some air back here Niles? It's hot as hell," Dylan said.

"Yep, get those comms on while you're at it," Niles told him, flipping the switch for the engine fan. It immediately began to cool inside the small space.

"I'm working on it," Dylan replied. "Vegas get the comms station up, I gotta get the weapons systems up before we leave."

"No problem," Vegas said, taking control of the comms station. He made sure the frequency was tuned into the same one as last night, and it was linked to the chopper. Sound came through the headphones of those inside the tank as it was activated.

"Comms active," he said through the mic, and everyone could hear. Dylan had gotten the weapons systems up, screens lighting up and cameras active. Vegas then closed both the hatches, locking them securely.

Lauren and Kyle had made their ways over to the helicopter and were in their seats. They closed the doors, each putting their helmets on first thing.

"Local comms online, you hear me?" she asked into the mic to Kyle, who was seated in front of her as the gunner.

"Loud and clear," he replied.

She turned on the battery systems, then the main comms system. Making sure it was tuned into the same frequency, they connected with the tank.

"This is Eagle, you there Ironside?" she said to the tank.

"We read you Eagle, this is Ironside, everything is good. You are clear for ignition," Dylan told them through the mic.

"Roger that, rotors coming online," she replied, flipping the switches for the motors. The motors whined and the rotors began to spin quickly. Kyle was busily configuring the weapons, bringing then all online. They pulled their sunshades down on the helmets.

"Longbow active," Lauren said. The inside of the sunshades were now illuminated with their heads up displays, giving them vital information about their surroundings.

"Rotors at full speed," she said.

"Eagle you are clear for takeoff, don't crash," Dylan said over the mic.

"Moving," Niles said, starting to move forward in the tank, slow at first, but quickly picking up speed to cruising speed of fifty-five miles per hour.

Gently, Lauren pulled up on the stick, bringing the chopper to a hover. A think cloud of dust surrounded them from the rotors. They didn't climb very high up, choosing to stay relatively low to the ground, about twenty feet above. They were quick to catch up with the tank, being that the chopper was much faster.

"Oh don't worry Dylan, we won't," Kyle replied back to his comment.

Lauren switched to local comms only.

"Hey do you think we should freak them out a bit?" she asked Kyle.

"YES do it!" Kyle whole heartedly agreed to having a bit of fun with them. She re-enabled the full comms.

Pushing the chopper faster and lower, they were just barely above the tank as they traveled at high speeds. Moving in front of it, Niles suddenly saw the huge view of a moving chopper in his view. Panicking for a split second, he yelled, "what the hell are you guys doing? I almost hit you!"

Dylan and Vegas were in the back freaking out as well, seeing it all happen on their cameras.

"Trying to die I guess," Dylan answered.

"Nah, we're having a little bit of fun," Kyle said.

Once they were about ten yards in front of the tank, Lauren jerked up on the stick hard, forcing the chopper into a vertical climb.

"Going up," she said sarcastically as they climbed fast. They went straight up as fast as they could, forcing the chopper to perform as its peak.

"Holy shit," Vegas said, watching as Dylan kept the cameras focused on their climb.

Lauren and Kyle both laughed, feeling the weight of gravity push they back in their seats.

Once she felt that they were high enough, about 850 feet in the air, she leveled it out. A smile crept on her lips at the next part of her 'fun'.

"Going down," she announced, suddenly pushing the stick all the way forward. The chopper jerked into a full nose dive.

"OH SHIT!" Dylan yelled, seeing them suddenly drop with incredible speed.

"WOOOOO YEAH!" Kyle yelled loudly, feeling weightlessness as they fell.

She turned the chopper, making it so they faced the tank as they fell. It got closer and closer with each passing second.

"FUCK DON'T CRASH!" Niles yelled to them, laughing.

Just before they were at the point of no recovery, Lauren pulled the stick back, quickly leveling out the chopper. Without stopping, she stayed low to the ground, charging for the tank head on.

"FUCK that was awesome!" Kyle yelled, recovering from the adrenaline rush he had just gotten.

"That was pretty sick," Lauren replied as she flew low over the tank. She turned it around gently, going forward again to catch up with the tank.

"That was pretty baws," Vegas said loudly.

"Yeah they almost died, it was awesome!" Dylan said, making the others laugh.

"You wish Dylan, I'm too awesome of a pilot to let that happen," Lauren replied.

"You probably should do that again, only this time see if you can see anything over the horizon," Niles suggested.

"You got it buddy," Lauren said, pulling the chopper up once again, although not nearly as fast.

"We're not gonna see anything for another three weeks anyway, what's the point?" Dylan asked.

"Nah, we have to be getting close to something, the desert doesn't go on forever," Niles said.

"Don't worry down there, we'll see what's up," Kyle said as they continued to climb slower than before. The sun was bright on the horizon, and the land was distorted thanks to the heat waves. The whole landscape was wavy and it was hard to see anything a couple miles away.

"Hey Lauren, look straight in front of us, what is that?" Kyle asked her. The others in the tank listened silently, focusing on what they were saying.

"I don't know, I can barely see it," Lauren replied, looking at what she thought he was talking about. It was a wavy mess of blacks, tans, and blues. One spot stuck out though, it was much darker than the others, and had tall structures with it.

"Switching to thermal vision," Kyle said, flipping the switch for his cameras. He looked on the display on his shade. He maneuvered the cameras around. The ground lit up brightly, but clearly in both of their vision were the shapes of buildings.

"Dude, those are buildings!" Lauren said excitedly over the mic.

"You guys see buildings? Like, a city?" Vegas asked them.

"It looks like it, there are tall buildings and everything," Kyle said.

"We headin' in the right direction?" Niles asked.

"Yeah, it's straight ahead," Kyle answered.

"How far away?" Niles asked again.

"Probably twenty miles away, we can make it there in about twenty minutes," Kyle said.

"Let's do it guys," Niles said, continuing to head straight.

"We're right behind you," Lauren said, staying on their current path high above.

The group moved on, getting excited that they had finally found would seemed to be a city. Moral was boosted incredibly. The poor prospect of running out of food was nothing but an afterthought now. What they would do when they got there, none had thought that far ahead, but civilization was near, and that's all they cared about.

"I told you guys that was an outpost," Vegas said. Lauren laughed.

"Yeah yeah, drinks on me."

!1!1!1!111111!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!111

A group of radio operators sat in a dark covered tent. There were multiple computer screens and other monitors shining bright lights up on them, making the dark space almost fully lit. There were four or five men and women, sitting lazily with their feet up on other chairs as they leaned back. They had not had any action for the past couple hours, there simply was nothing going on. They laughed and told stories from the past with the others there, whom they had become close with.

Suddenly, one of the radio needles began to fluctuate back and forth rapidly. The man working that station quickly looked at it, putting on his headset to listen in. The transmission was fuzzy and hard to make out, but it definitely was a transmission.

" Hey La- … lo- straight in front… wh- is that?" the message came through an indecipherable mess of static.

"Sir, transmission coming in from the southwest!" the man yelled in a thick accent, realizing they had a problem here.

The man in charge walked over, almost in disbelief that something had been captured from the middle of the desert. There nothing out there but an abandoned enemy outpost and endless desert.

"What's it saying?" the man asked in the same accent.

" Switchi- to -rmal vision," the next line came through.

"Clean that up, I want to hear every word they say!" the man ordered.

"Yes sir," the man said, working to clean up the transmissions.

"Chamberlin, I want this recorded, get it," he then ordered to the next person.

"Yes sir," he replied, immediately going to work at his station.

The radios static was removed with some squeaking and interference of the waves until the man got the right frequency and it came in as clear as he could get it.

"It looks like it, the- are tall buildings… -everything," they heard.

"They have spotted our position sir," the operator said.

"Do we have ID on these people?" the man asked the boss.

"No sir, we don't know if they are enemy or not," he replied.

"Find out who they are and what they have," the man ordered.

"Yes sir," he replied.

The boss ran out of the tent and through the busy camp area. There were multiple tents set up as well as people and equipment laying around waiting for orders. The man barged into a command tent, where there was a table and three men standing behind it. He stood at attention, saluting the men.

The man in the center of the three looked up to him, seeming uninterested.

"Yes Captain?" he asked, looking back down at the map on the table. He was wearing a tan camouflage long sleeve top and pants. His head was covered with short, greying hair and he had dark eyebrows. On his uniform was the insignia for Lieutenant-general, bearing a crown with a sword and staff under it on his sleeves.

"Sir, we have radio transmissions coming in from the southwest, they have located the outer rim of the city and are coming towards us," he announced. The man looked up to him slowly with a serious look on his face. The two men to either of his sides looked serious as well, but stayed silent.

"Is it an enemy transmission?" the man asked, an edge on his voice.

"I'm not sure yet sir, I have my team trying to figure out its origin as well as its status. There were multiple voices, at least two sir," he answered.

"Is the radar picking up anything?" he asked.

"No sir, nothing has been spotted within a thirty mile radius, it cannot be an army sir, possibly a single vehicle," he said.

"I've been meaning to get that radar upgraded, it can't tell the difference between a swarm of bombers or a flock of damn birds," he said.

"Sir, what shall I do sir?" the man asked, waiting for orders.

"We will stop these people as soon as they enter the city streets, it will be easy to cut them off in the blocked streets. Go find out who and what these people are and report back to me when they are getting close. Major?" the man turned to the man to his left.

"Yes sir?" the man asked strongly, going to attention and saluting him.

"Get the troops together, I want tanks ready to block the roads in, these people are not getting away," he said.

"Right away sir," the man said, immediately leaving the tent. The captain followed him out, rushing back to his tent. When he entered, he was bombarded with people yelling for him.

"Sir, the group has passed the outpost and are coming towards the city, there was a transmission where one said 'we're right behind you', possibly indicating more than one group or vehicle incoming," the man reported.

"The lieutenant-general is mobilizing a group to cut these people off as they enter, keep monitoring them and try to find out when they will be here exactly," the captain ordered.

"Yes sir!" the man said, moving back to his station with haste.

!11!111!11!1!11!1111!1!11!1!

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><p>There you have it. Who are the people who seem to have found them? We will find out next!<p>

Cheers


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys! I've had this chapter written for quite a while now, but just got around to uploading it. Enjoy!

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><p>"I seriously cannot believe our luck," Vegas said as they approached the outer limits of the city. The group in the tank had been able to see the city for about ten minutes now, and they were quickly approaching it. The sun was high in the sky, raining heat and bright light down on them. It was getting towards late noon, but was still very hot and very bright. A heavy hazy covered the tall buildings ahead, making visibility an issue.<p>

Lauren and Kyle were far behind in the chopper, high above the tank. They followed at a lengthy distance, following a well-known strategy when entering an unknown city. It was very unwise for a helicopter to enter a potentially occupied city before ground forces, because it was much more vulnerable to attack from buildings as well as obstacles themselves. As such, the tank would be entering first, and the chopper would come in after the area was cleared.

The city looked massive from their point of view. They could see that it went on for miles and miles. There was everything from high rise towers to tall office buildings to the small "mom and pop" shops and restaurants in between them. There were also streets that were strictly dedicated to outdoor markets as well as large intersections. It seemed to have the modern and cultural sides to the region they were in. It was quite a mix.

But still, no people.

"Yeah, but we aren't out of the woods yet, we don't know who or what is already here, we can't be the first ones," Lauren said.

"I'm not picking anything up so far," Kyle said, looking through his cameras. He was still quite far away from the city though, making it possible there was still a threat lurking between buildings.

"Just move in slow, we have your cover fire if you need it," Lauren told the tank crew, who was ready on the main gun. Dylan had showed Vegas how to reload, and he had practiced while they were making their way over here.

"Roger that Lauren, Ironside moving in, get ready back there," Niles said as they moved towards the outer city streets. The city was tightly packed. There was a street that led into the heart of the city, blocked off by high buildings and light posts. It would be hard for the chopper to provide close quarters fire if it turned into a street fight.

"Eagle, do you have a layout of the city for us? We can't see anything," Vegas asked over the mic.

"Yeah, we will send you a picture now, there are many small streets that lead to huge intersections," Kyle said, sending them a picture from the Longbow system. It appeared on one of the tank's screens, letting the crew see the layout from their point of view.

"You'll be fine, don't worry," Lauren added once again.

"You don't sound very confident with that," Dylan noted sarcastically.

"Hey don't worry bro, I got your back," Lauren repeated with the same sarcasm.

"I seriously can't tell if you mean that, you gonna just leave us in the middle of a city?" he taunted back.

"Nah, I wouldn't do that, I would miss Vegas and Niles too much," she replied again.

"You're real nice," he said.

"I try my best," she replied back.

Kyle kept his eyes on the monitors during Dylan and Lauren's exchange. Though he listened to their rants, he was more concerned with what was being shown on all of his sensor gauges and screens. He furrowed his brow at a certain heat signature on the thermal vision. It was mostly hidden by the buildings, and was hard to make out. All he could see was the large, square-ish back of what looked like some type of vehicle. He couldn't be sure though. From the back he could see what looked like heated exhaust billowing into the air. This could easily be just heat coming off the pavement though.

"Hey guys, I got what looks like an unidentified vehicle on your four o'clock, it's just sitting there though. I'm sending the target info to you now," Kyle warned them.

"Roger that Eagle, we have it," Dylan said, seeing the target light up on one of his monitors. Vegas looked over Dylan's shoulder as the screen, seeing the real time image of the object.

"That definitely looks like some type of vehicle, but I haven't seen something that looks like that before," Vegas noted out loud.

"Yeah, we better not piss it off," Dylan added.

"Just don't go by it, you'll be fine," Kyle reassured them.

Niles moved slowly down the street as he made it in-between the buildings. They crept so slow that they could hear the treads hit the concrete individually with a clacking sound. The buildings were even more close together than they had seemed before. There was barely enough room for them to make it through without hitting the sides of buildings. Polls lined the sides of the roads as well, making it an even tighter squeeze.

"I don't like this guys, I have a really bad feeling we're not the only ones here," Niles said, looking around through his view. They couldn't hear anything that went on around them, and even with a proximity scanner, there was very little room for them to make an escape. They felt like someone was watching them…

"Keep moving Ironside, we're moving in to cover you," Lauren said, diving the chopper down to catch up with the quickly.

"We are, don't freak us out," Dylan answered back. He moved the main gun around on the turret, scanning on the targeting computer for any movement. Vegas quickly sat down in the loader's seat, taking control of the observation cameras. He moved them in a complete circle, looking for any threats.

The chopper was closing in. Now that they had successfully entered the city streets, they could get closer to them. Both kept a close eye on the scanners.

Suddenly, there was a sharp movement to Ironside's five o'clock. It immediately caught their eyes.

Kyle couldn't believe his eyes…this was bad.

"Fuck..." Lauren muttered.

"SHIT Ironside tanks and infantry moving in from your five o'clock! MOVE YOUR ASS NOW!" Kyle yelled over the microphone. He saw two unidentified tanks as well as a group of infantry quickly moving towards their rear. This had become very serious now.

"FUCK hold on guys!" Niles yelled, flooring the accelerator. The tank lurched forward quickly, the engine revving loudly. Vegas hastily whipped the camera around to see the lights of two large battle tanks behind them. Infantry was flooding the streets alongside them.

"Smokescreen going up! Lauren get your ass down here and cover us!" Dylan yelled, flipping the switch on the board, releasing the tanks defensive smokescreen from tubes on the turret. The little grenades flew up into the air, exploding and creating a blinding smokescreen, giving them time to get away hopefully.

Lauren flew as fast as she could get the chopper to go, reaching speeds of one-hundred and fifty miles per hour. Their muscles were tight and adrenaline was pumping, hoping that they could make it in time.

"I can't get between the buildings, they are too close together!" she yelled back.

Their hearts were all racing. None were really able to focus, all of their actions were just gut instincts. They knew in such a tight area and with an unknown enemy, their best bet was to try and keep moving, but if need be, they would attack and defend.

The proximity scan started beeping wildly as they blindly sped through the tight city streets. They ran over anything that was in their way, taking out signs, parking meters, and even sides of buildings.

The road continued down a long, slightly curved hill. The street was so narrow, and the added stress of being chased was making their driving reckless. On a cross street, Niles was unable to get the beastly tank through, taking out a supporting post for a small market stand. Fruits and other products spilled onto the ground, pulling the rest of the structure down into the street behind them.

They roared down the hill, picking up even more speed. Stopping was not something on their mind.

"Keep going they are still behind you!" Lauren yelled at them as they entered the limits of the city overhead. They were catching up fast, and hopefully it would be in time.

Vegas and Dylan looked at the monitors as they signaled something straight in front of them coming closer. The siren was blaring loudly.

There was a large intersection ahead of them, with nowhere to go in the middle.

"IN FRONT OF YOU!" Kyle yelled to them, seeing an ambush coming. From all three sides of the intersection a tank was moving in, cutting off any retreat. Infantry was all around them, waiting.

At that moment, Ironside was in the center of the crossroad. Two tanks from their left and right suddenly showed up from behind the buildings, blocking them in.

"FUCK they are all around us!" Dylan yelled in a panicked voice.

He yelled that just in time to be cut off by a tank blocking the road in front of them. Niles slammed on the brakes, locking up the treads to avoid rolling over the tank. The others in the back slammed against the walls of the tank. It skidded to a stop, leaving hot tread marks all the way down the road.

"SHIT we're surrounded," Niles yelled, ripping off his headset and throwing it against the dashboard in anger. Something like this had never happened to them, and he was infuriated that they were unable to get away.

Infantry began crawling out from around buildings and tanks, slowly approaching the tank with weapons aimed.

Those inside the tank were getting very anxious. They could feel their hands and feet start to shake, and their warmed faces soon became very cold.

"Don't shoot don't shoot don't shoot," Dylan repeated out loud.

"NO! Fucking DO NOT shoot!" Niles yelled back to him in a angry voice.

Lauren and Kyle were right above them, low to the ground in the chopper, circling the action. They could not believe what had just happened. The ambush had come so fast…there was nothing they could do about it. Now, all they could do was hope they didn't execute them on the spot.

It left them speechless.

"Turn the engine off now!" The man outside ordered loudly. Niles quickly reached over in an angry fashion to press the ignition button, shutting down the loud engines. The large turbine engine whined softly as it slowed to a stop.

Neither Dylan nor Vegas could believe this. They stared at each other, fear in their eyes, and a bit of confusion.

_Were those orders in English?_

They removed their headsets, choosing to hang them up rather than throw them. Although Dylan was more angry that they had been caught by someone, this was a worst case scenario for Vegas. Being a prisoner of war was not something he had really prepared himself for.

"Get out of the tank slowly with your hands on your heads!" one man yelled from a loud speaker mounted onto a troop carrier.

"Do as he says, get the fuck out," Niles said, lifting the front opening for the driver's compartment at the front of the hull. He slowly lifted it, showing his hands as he exited. He quickly noticed the flags on the tanks' antenna in front of him, and the insignia on the people's clothing.

They were British.

Niles' hands and arms were quickly grabbed in a rough fashion by the infantry men, and he was pulled the rest of the way out. The repeatedly told him to stay calm and not to try anything, but he simply didn't respond back.

He was pissed.

Once he was out of the hatch and down the front of the tank, the men pushed on the backs of his knees to get him to kneel down. They bound his hands with handcuffs, and continued to hold them up against the back of his head. He was patted down from head to toe. They confiscated his belt which had ammunition as well as his M9 pistol and the holster. They also took his combat knife that was strapped to his upper leg in a holster.

Dylan and Vegas both opened their hatches, slowly climbing out of the tank and moving down the side. They were kneeled down next to Niles in a line at gunpoint. They were stripped of their weapons as well.

"What weapons do you have in the tank?" one of the men asked who was searching them.

"An M4, TDI Vector, an XM8, SV98, M95, an 870, some frag and smoke grenades, and some combat knives," Niles answered. The man nodded and looked over his shoulder, waving in another man. He moved over towards the tank, climbing up onto the side and moving down the hatch to gather the weapons.

All of the infantry as well as the tanks around them and behind them were poised to strike at a moment's notice. Their hands were on their heads as they waited tensely.

"Well, that worked well," Dylan mumbled to Niles.

"NO SPEAKING!" a British man yelled at him in a thick accent.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry!" he yelled, shutting his mouth.

"Land the chopper immediately or be shot down!" the man now yelled through the speakers.

"FUCKING LAND!" Kyle yelled to her.

"I have to find a spot dammit!" she yelled back, lowering the chopper carefully. She was careful not to hit any buildings or wires with the rotors. There was a small space off to the left of Ironside that was about as good of a place as they would get.

"We should have seen that coming," Kyle said over his mic as they were descending.

"Well, we sorta did, but chose to go in anyway. If they haven't killed us yet, there is still hope for us," she replied.

The wheels touched down, and she stopped the engines, letting the rotors slow with a loud whine.

"Exit the helicopter with your hands on your heads!" he announced, and they did as they were told. Though they knew they had a chance of escaping, they were not about to leave without the rest of the group.

Slowly opening the doors, they moved from the chopper, not bothering to close the doors once again. They put their hands on their heads, and were met by angry looking infantry men right at the doors. They grabbed their hands, holding them up to the backs of their heads. They pushed the squad members up against the chopper, searching them for weapons. Off of Kyle they pulled an M9 pistol with some magazines of ammunition, as well as a combat knife. They got a knife and a Desert Eagle off of Lauren. The men put the weapons into their pockets, holding them.

"What weapons do you have in the helicopter?" one asked.

"Two CAR-15s, one in each cockpit," Kyle answered. The man nodded, signaling another to go find them.

After they were cleared, they were led towards the rest of the group, walking quickly.

All around them there were rifles pointed at them, as well as tanks and heavy machine guns.

It was quite a comforting feeling.

They joined the others, being pushed down to the ground next to them. It didn't take long for Lauren and Kyle to realize that they were in very little danger. They picked out the flags on the tanks and uniforms easily, realizing that these people were British.

Historically, the British and US had always been allies since the Revolutionary War, and frequently met up in the field together in modern times. As long as they could convince them they were American, things would be ok, hopefully.

Shouldn't be that hard.

The man who was speaking to them walked up, looking at them fiercely. Admittedly, he did have sort of a comical face on, and Dylan was having a hard time not cracking a smile.

"DON'T LAUGH DYLAN YOU FUCKTARD!" Niles yelled loudly at him. The group was immediately yelled at by a group of soldiers who were aiming down their sights at them.

"Stand down men," the man who approached them said. He had arrived in an army green jeep that looked past its age, but it was still running smoothly.

They were quite, and backed off immediately for the man. He was very calm, taking his own sweet time to get things moving. It only made it more nerve-wracking for the five kneeling in front of him.

"Sir, we recovered these from them," a man said to him with two other men behind him carrying all of their weapons. The man looked at them with a pleased look on his face.

"Good show, load them up in the truck then," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the man replied, leaving to walk towards a supply truck off to the right.

The man glanced at the little flags that flew on both antenna of the tank the five had been driving. Both were clearly American flags. It was also an American battle tank, the M1A2 Abrams. Looking over to the helicopter they had landed, he noticed the Eagle carrying the American flag on the side. It also was an American war plane, the A-64 Apache Longbow. They also wore clothing that had U.S Army insignia on it. He was highly convinced these were American soldiers, and that they posed little threat to them or their camp.

"You are Americans, yes?" he asked them. There was a pause, as none of them answered. "You can answer," he added after the pause.

"Yes sir, we are," Lauren answered him strongly.

"What are you doing so far outside your Forward Operating Base? And how did you not know we were here? This is restricted military space," he asked, looking skeptically at them.

"My apologies sir, we did not mean to intrude, we were only trying to find civilization," Lauren answered while the others stayed silent.

"Our base was completely wiped out by some type of virus or something, it turned everyone in the base into living dead, we are the only ones that made it out. We have been trying to find food and water since," she answered. They watched as the man's face suddenly became more serious.

"Your base was attacked as well?" he asked seriously.

"Yes, are you familiar with this plague?" she asked. He nodded his head slowly.

"About a month ago half of our forces were taken out by the very same thing," he answered, his accent very thick.

"And so you set up a new base in this city?" she finished.

"Yes, this is all we have left" he replied, seeing that these people were not stupid by any means, and knew what they were talking about. "What are your names soldiers?"

"My name is Lauren sir, and these are Kyle, Vegas, Dylan, and Niles. We are a special operations squad for the 10th Cavalry Battalion," she said.

"Ah yes, I am familiar with that division, they are located down towards the coast, quite a distance you have traveled," he answered.

"It has been quite a journey," she added.

"My name is Carl Winston, I am the commanding officer of the 5th Battalion as you have already met," he introduced.

"A Lieutenant-General I see? Very impressive sir," Niles said, showing that he knew what was going on, and was not completely ignorant to another army's ranks.

"Indeed," he replied. The troops around them all seemed a bit confused as to what was going on. What turned out to be a vital security breach was now nothing more than an unfortunate meeting of two allies. They had lowered their weapons, waiting for new orders.

"Well lads, looks like we have caught some lost Americans here," he said with the jolly laugh. The others around hem visibly relaxed, knowing full well that the Americans were allies. Never before had they seen an atmosphere change so quickly. It left them almost confused.

Almost.

"Well, shall we go back to the camp and enjoy the rest of our day boys?" the general asked out loud. He earned a cheer from the soldiers around, who seemed eager to go back to a day of kicking back.

"Swell then. Major?" the man called on the Major.

"Yes general?" he asked.

"Gather an escort for our guests, have them in my tent, I wish to speak with them. Find a couple pilots to bring the helicopter back and bring the Abrams back to the lot. Move the men out and tell them to go back to their normal routine for the day," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the man answered, immediately moving out to carry out his orders.

The general began to walk back to his small jeep that had been carrying him around. An almost sinister smile came onto his face as he thought about this plan coming together so well. _They may be able to pull this off yet._

A group of six men came over to the squad who was still kneeling uncomfortably on the cement. One came up behind each of them and helped them to their feet. The last man tagged behind, who they assumed was there to shoot them if they tried to escape.

They were walked through the streets back to the base, which was about half a mile away from where they were. Infantry that was in the road parted ways for them.

Behind them, equipment was moved back into formation and readied to move back to camp. The infantry gathered back into their squads, awaiting orders from their officers.

As they walked, they were able to see two people enter Ironside. The roar of the engine was heard, turning a couple heads at the sheer volume of the finely tuned engine. Niles could only imagine what this would be like to see them try to drive it.

They could tell that those inside were not used to the controls. Suddenly the bright lights shined into everyone's eyes. Those in the direct path of the light covered their eyes. The squad laughed quietly to themselves.

"This is interesting," Kyle said out loud, earning a small laugh from the others.

The lights quickly went out. Suddenly the loudest horn anyone had ever heard blared through the air. People yelled in disapproval, some covering their ears.

By now the squad was laughing loudly at the comedic act of watching these people try to work their tank.

Then, suddenly the tank burst forward in a fit of speed. The whole body lurched backwards onto the rear treads, the front lifting up about a foot. The engine roared loudly, the turbine spinning furiously. The tank sped across the road for about ten feet until those inside slammed on the brakes, forcing it to a short stop.

Now, the squad was laughing so hard their abs were starting to hurt.

"Let's hope they don't use the main gun," Vegas added.

"If they're having this much trouble trying to drive it, who knows," Kyle replied with a laugh.

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They moved quickly through the camp, which they could tell had been set up rather quickly. There was barely any organization to the set up of the tents, which were sprawled out everywhere. There were no pathways to walk, forcing you to walk in between tents, showers, and other belongings. There were a couple of small plastic pools that were set up, filled lowly with water. They assumed it was for cooling off in the sun, since there was very little cover.

The camp was built in the middle of a clearing right on the outskirt of the city. Tall buildings surrounded it, enclosing it on all sides except to enter the parking lot, where all the tanks and other vehicles were being held. On the parameter of the lot was a fence that had been erected by the British they assumed.

They were moved into a rather large tent that resembled Watson's tent back at their base. It had a table in the center with maps set all over it. They paid no mind to them. The squad was held there by the men until the general returned.

They stood there for about five minutes until the general came into the tent from the back. He appeared in front of them with the major in toe.

"Lead them back to my office, I need to talk with them," the man said, walking back behind the tent where he had come from.

The men holding them led them back through the little doorway. The Major stayed the close the door once they were in, guarding the door. The man sat them down in chairs in front of a large heavy desk. The room was nothing more than a very large tent with a plastic window, but it was far better protected from the elements than the other part was. There were filing cabinets all around the walls filled with papers. A laptop sat on the wooden desk, along with a cup of pens and a desk lamp. Also, their pistols and knives were laying on the desk, and the rifles were leaning up against the wall behind his chair.

The inside of the tent was colored a deep navy blue, although they couldn't really understand why. It didn't really matter anyway.

Their hands were let down behind their backs finally, letting blood finally make it to their hands.

"You may leave," the general said to the escorts, who promptly left through the door.

Winston took a large cigar from his desk drawer along with a lighter, lighting it and taking a deep breath from it. He puffed out smoke, which reminded the group all too much of Watson.

He stood there looking at them for a moment, without saying anything. It was all to make them nervous they knew, and refused to show any signs of feeling.

"So how did you make it out of the camp as the only surviving people?" he asked them, standing in front of the small window. The sun was shining through brightly casting a shadow on him.

"We were out on a mission to gather information about the location of enemy tanks that were spotted in the area for artillery sir," Lauren answered truthfully. There was no point in lying to them, since their camp was completely gone. Plus, it was good to build trust with them.

"From the time we left to the time we got back, we have no idea what happened," Kyle added.

The general nodded, taking another drag on his cigar.

"The exact same thing occurred to us at our last base as well, which is how we ended up here," he said.

"Do you have any idea what has caused this plague?" Vegas asked.

The general seemed to pause, eyeing the Major who was still at the door. The man gave him a look that none of the squad members could see. Winston looked back to them.

"No, we haven't found anything about it at this time," he finally answered. They had no choice but to take his words at face value, even though they clearly saw the signs on his face. They knew there were things they weren't telling them, but rightfully so. There was no reason for them to share anything with them.

"Now, we need to talk about what to do with you five. You said you were a special forces squad?" he asked, turning the chat to a more casual one. He waltzed back to his chair, sitting down in it and leaning back.

"Yes sir, we were trained as soldiers for different classes," Lauren answered.

"And what classes would those be?" he asked.

"I am a sniper, Kyle here is an assault soldier who specializes in demolition, Niles is the engineer, Dylan is the medic, and Vegas is an assault soldier," she answered.

"We have known each other, with the exception of Vegas, for almost our whole lives, and somehow ended up in the same squad when we were shipped over here," Niles added.

"Yes, I was assigned to their squad the day all of this started," Vegas added to that.

"Sort of weird how all of you ended up on the same squad after being in different training. You must have been meant to be together," Winston said.

"I guess so, we always have each other's backs until the end," Niles said proudly.

"You got it man," Kyle leaned over to see him, nodding. The rest voiced their agreement to him.

"It's good to know you have someone with you, and to have a whole squad even, very lucky," the general said. "Especially in the world of war."

"So then, let's move on shall we?" he asked them. They perked their attention for the next questions.

"What are your given ranks?" he asked.

They looked at each other with questioning looks, seeming confused. They mumbled amongst themselves about what to say.

"Um, we don't really have specific ranks sir, we were apart from everyone else. We only worked with each other, and not one of us is a leader of our squad, it's just all of us," Lauren explained.

"So you did not command anyone?" he asked.

"No, we never worked with anyone but ourselves outside of training," she confirmed.

"Well, I would assume that because you are special operations your ranks as well as skill levels are quite high," he said, taking some more notes down on the paper.

"When we left basic training we were all sergeants, but we never were addressed as sergeants nor did we wear patches with the sergeant rank," Niles said. "We had titles for our classes but that is it."

"I see," he replied. "Well, I assume you know that I called you here for a different reason rather than finding out what ranks you are."

They knew what he was getting at, and for the most part they knew what they wanted to do, it was just a matter of working their way up to that point.

"What should I do with you?" he asked them flat out, as if asking them.

"Since you are not under arrest by us nor are you our prisoners, you are free to leave after this chat. We will give you back your things and send you on your way," he said standing up from his chair. They could tell this was not the option he was pushing for.

"Or..."

Here it comes.

"You may stay under our command and not have to scrounge around in the desert for basic needs, until we can find you another American base around," he added.

They looked skeptically at each other, knowing there had to be some type of condition.

"What's the catch?" Vegas asked boldly. The general smiled knowingly.

"You will have to gain the trust of the soldiers as well as the officers including me, as well as prove yourself to the men that you are not a danger. You will also have restricted access to the camp at first and be guarded from time to time. You also will be required to take orders from myself or any officer in the camp and if the time comes, accompany them on missions," he announced. "What do you say?"

The squad turned to the other members, chatting about the different options. It was clear that they were very unlikely to come across another friendly group, and on their current supplies there was no way they would make it more than two weeks out in the desert. On the down side, they would be required to take orders from the British, as well as be baby-sat until they could gain their trust. It was more the soldiers they were worried about. If they were anything like the soldiers back at base, they were not keen to outsiders and were stone cold to anyone who was not of their nationality.

"Well then?" the rather impatient man asked again.

"You won't send us on suicide missions?" Dylan asked.

"Not on any mission I wouldn't send my own forces. It is unlikely that you will be sent on one anyway," he added.

Dylan gave them all a half smile, shrugging his shoulders as if to say "might as well".

"Alright, we will stay here with your army, general," Niles told him, speaking for the rest of them.

They watched as the general smiled, giving a half hearted laugh.

"Swell chaps, now then, we will get a tent set up just outside the camp. Food, water, and firewood will be in the tent waiting for you. You are required to stay by the tent all night until the guards come to get you in the morning. Understood?" he explained.

"Yes sir, we understand," Lauren said.

"Alright then," he said, waving for the Major to come over.

"Major, be so kind as to take those handcuffs off our guests and make sure their tent is prepared. Take them out to their tents after they are done and assigns some guards to watch over them," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the man replied, walking over to them and taking off the cuffs one by one.

"Aw man finally," Dylan remarked, rubbing his wrists where the hard metal was digging into them. The rest gave similar responses to them being taken off.

"Stand up," the Major told them. The five did so, getting a chance to really look around as the cuffs were taken off. The general had many photos up of a beautiful woman, who they presumed to be his wife. There were also pictures of children on his desk as well, a boy and two girls. The girls had light blond hair, and the boy had dark brown, almost looking black in the picture. Around the rest of the room were many propaganda posters about joining the military, some dating back to the second world war.

"Will we be getting our weapons back, or are they not allowed on base?" Kyle asked the general.

"They are allowed, but you will not be getting them back for quite some time," he replied with a smile.

"Alright," Kyle replied, a little upset that he wasn't going to have any of his equipment with him.

When all of the cuffs had been taken off, the Major moved for the door to let them out. He opened it out, motioning for them to go outside. They left in a line, automatically forming one. Kyle led the way, making it out first, followed by the others. They were met outside the room by the same table that had been there, as well as three men. The five stopped, grouping together and waiting for new directions.

"Come this way," the major told them, walking out from under the tent. "I will show you around the camp while your tent is being prepared."

The five agreed, although they had very little choice.

They started walking through the camp. There was really no organization to the way the tents were set up, so they had to walk in and out of other soldier's camp sites. They could hear songs playing through personal radios that people had scattered around in their tents. They paid no mind to them though.

"This is the main camp area. As you can see all of the tents are here for quarters. Some small vehicles are also parked around here," the major explained.

"By the way, forgive my rudeness, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Russell Montgomery. I am the Major of this battalion as I'm sure you have figured out by now."

He was a tall man, though was not as tall as the general was. His hair was short and graying on the sides, and his face was clean shaven. He had hard lines in his face, making him look very serious and strong. He had on a short sleeved army green camouflage shirt with a name badge on it, as well as matching pants and tan army boots.

Each one of them shook his offered hand, giving him a courteous smile.

"Right then, let's carry on," Russell said to them, turning and starting to walk more.

They were led away from the main camp area where there were three or four very long tents all connected together. Together they spanned a distance of at least forty feet. To the left of the entry to the tents, there was a very large tent, the largest they had seen so far. It was square in shape.

"Here is the cafeteria, I guess you could call it. It's where we serve all the food. Our cooks lay it out on the tables inside the tents and you can pick out whatever you want. One thing about the cooks, don't let them see you throwing anything away, they can get quite angry," he warned playfully.

"Over in that tent," he started, pointing to the large square tent, "is the kitchen, where all the food is prepared. We have one squad that sets up everything before each meal, a different squad each meal. It spreads the work load out to everyone."

They continued to walk towards the outer rims of the main camp, coming to a separate looking area. It had a bar looking thing that was set up with stools before the counter. It was nothing more than an old market stand that had been converted into a crude stand, but it had a back area where all the supplies were stored.

In the center of the land was a huge circle that was fenced off. It looked to be a boxing ring or some type of fight ring. Around it was a crudely fashioned fence that was nothing more than random pieces of chain link fence, wood, and even boxes stacked up on each other. The circle was quite large, spanning a diameter of at least 20 feet. The sand was bunched up around the edges of the perimeter from movement. Foot prints were in the sand all over the ring.

This caught the group's initial interest. They took some good looks at it, trying to figure out what it could possibly be used for.

The major sensed their interest, turning around to see they were no longer following him. Their gazes were fixed on the ring as they chattered back and forth with each other. With a knowing smile, he took a couple steps back to meet back up with them.

"That is the fight ring," the major told them.

"What kind of fights?" Vegas asked him.

"Free form mostly, there really aren't any rules to the fights. The soldiers use it to let off steam and have some fun, but also to gain respect among each other. It's a male dominance thing I suppose. I have never seen a woman fight before," he responded, aiming the last bit towards the sniper of the group. She gave him a disapproving look, but he didn't notice. The others' faces gave an odd look to his words, but since Lauren chose to do nothing about it, so did they.

"Now then, let's carry on with some rules, since I don't think the general went over all of them," Russell said, moving them along towards the parking lot, which was on the other side of the camp.

"Meals are served breakfast, lunch, and supper at 8, noon, and 6 respectively," he said.

"Shit that's early," Dylan mumbled to the others under his breath. The others looked at him silently telling him not to let the major hear that.

"There are just below 200 people in this camp, we need to keep things organized as you probably know. Keep your camp area clean and there won't be any issues. When it is your turn to help set up for a meal, you will be called an hour early, but you will know ahead of time when your turn is. No vehicles or weapons in the camp. No loud music among other common sense things: don't go through other people's belongings, that sort of thing."

"We have been in a base before, we understand the rules," Kyle finally spoke up, relieving the man of going through every single rule with them.

"You won't have to worry about us," Niles assured him.

Montgomery gave them a thankful smile, happy to know that this would be a lot easier than he had thought it would.

"Right then. Then I assume you know that unless we are training or on a mission, your days are free, to an extent for you of course. You will be allowed into the Rec Area, being the drink stand and the fight ring, and of course the cafeteria at meal time. Do not go into the main camp or the parking lot unless told to do so by myself or the general," Montgomery told them.

"We understand," Lauren told him.

They had walked across the camp, remaining on the outskirts. The sun was starting to get very bright across the sky, signaling the coming of night. The bright yellow-orange sun reflected off the tall sky scrapers that protected the camp. It lit up the sky like fire. There were very few clouds in the sky, making it a very clear night. It also would make it a very cold night, given that they were to spend the night in a tent.

They continued to walk until hitting a guard post on the very outer perimeter. It was constructed out of an old merchant's stand, giving those inside some place to sit and protection from the elements. It was crude at most, made out of wood that looked like it hadn't been painted for years. There was a sign on the top written in Arabic. None of them could make out what it said.

The Major stopped and turned to talk to the guards inside the stand. They stood up tall, listening to their orders for the night.

"Make sure they stay here all night. If there is any problem, radio either myself or the general," Russell told them.

"Yes sir," they both replied.

"Great then, have a nice night lads," he bid the guardsmen, walking the couple feet back over to the squad.

"This is where I drop you off for the night. I will require that you stay in this tent all night until I come to fetch you in the morning. Don't get into trouble or I'll be seeing you sooner than that, and we don't want to do that, I would rather sleep through the whole night. Food and water for each of you is out there as is firewood, some tinder, and a lighter to start a fire if you wish. Don't be up all night, the show must go on tomorrow!" he finished with a laugh. The others just looked at each other, not really knowing how to respond.

"Right then, off you go, I will pick you up tomorrow for breakfast chaps, good night," he bid them farewell, turning to walk back into the camp.

"Ok then," Kyle said with a half laugh as the group started to walk through the gate out towards the tent. They could sense the gazes of the guardsmen on their backs, and it was slightly unsettling. Ultimately they chose to ignore it.

The cool night air was starting to nip at their skin. Unfortunately for them, they still had the clothes on that they had used for daytime travel, which was short sleeves and combat pants.

They all walked up to the tent that had been set up for them. It was a small green tent with a sharp point at the top. It was barely five-by-five feet, which was going to make it impossible for them to all sleep in the tent at once.

"Nice of them to give us a tent that is too small," Niles said.

"I guess we're lucky we even got this," Lauren added.

"Normally I would agree with you, but in this case...no," Kyle argued.

"Brits are fucking weird," Dylan added.

"Hey come on guys, it's not that bad. We have fire, food, and water. Better than we were doing this morning," Vegas said, giving them a bright side to look at.

"Plus we have a steady supply of it, which is way better than this morning," Niles added.

Vegas began taking the pieces of firewood that were stacked on the side of the tent and bringing them over in front of the opening. He took four pieces, standing them up and making a tee-pi like shape. He laid some of the tinder under the wood, balled up tight. He then laid some of the bark that had fallen off the logs on top of the tinder, do help get things going.

"They teach you this in basic training?" Lauren asked him, sitting down by the little fire pit.

"No," Vegas answered with a laugh, "I was a Cub Scout back in the day, we learned all types of this stuff."

"I remember those days, they were great times," Niles added.

"You were one too?" Vegas asked.

"Yep, all the way through Eagle Scout," Niles replied.

"It was a great time, that's for sure," Vegas finished.

He look the little lighter that was laying with the other supplies and held it under the tinder, lighting it. It quickly took the flames, catching the bark first. He put the lighter in his pocket, knowing it could come in use later.

"And we have light!" Vegas playfully announced, sitting down next to Lauren who was already sitting. The rest followed suit, forming a close circle around the fire.

"What a day eh?" Kyle asked the group. They gave a knowing laugh.

"You're tellin' me. It's not even day that you get taken in by a British battalion that was attacked by the same something that yours was and they give you a tent to camp outside their base," Lauren summarized for them.

"Basically," Dylan replied.

Forgetting that they had food and water, Vegas reached back into the tent, grabbing a stack of packaged meals. He passed them out to the rest of the group, and also passed around the bottles of water.

"Wonder what this is," Niles asked, starting to open the plastic container.

Dylan opened it up, seeing some crackers with sliced cheese and meats, as well as dried fruit.

It was in essence, a sandwich.

He stared at the food with anger as the others laughed loudly as they opened theirs. They were all the same.

"I fucking hate my life," Dylan ranted under his breath. The rest of the squad continued to laugh, starting to fix themselves a meal.

"At least it's not peanut butter," Lauren added.

"They must have known somehow, that is the only way they would have sent us sandwiches," Dylan said with anger.

"Just eat it, you're lucky you got that," Niles told him, eating one that he had already made.

Dylan sighed, setting the container down and grabbing a cracker. "I give up you guys."

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Major Russell walked back through the camp, heading back to the general's command tent. We walked in a rushed fashion, as if he had something very important he needed to tell the general. He weaved through tents and setups, making his way all the way across the camp.

Once he reached the tent, he was met by two other captains.

"Is the general in his office?" Russell asked them.

"Yes sir, he's waiting for you," one of them answered.

"Alright, thanks mate," he responded, walking past the table with the maps on it, and into the back room. He closed the door behind himself.

"I have my report general," he announced.

Winston's back was facing the Major, but at the sound of his voice, he turned his chair around to face him.

"Ah yes, Major Russell, I trust that our guests have been taken to the tent?" he asked him.

Russell walked closer to the desk, though he chose to stay standing.

"Yes sir they have, the guards are in the post as well," he answered.

"Swell then. Did you get a chance to talk to them at all?" he asked.

"Not much sir, they were quiet when I was showing them around the camp. I only know what you found out earlier about them," he replied.

"A pity, but we don't want to force them," the general replied back.

"Do you think they will be able to help us sir?" Russell asked him.

Carl smiled, nodding his head slowly. "I have great confidence in their skills. If they function anywhere near how their equipment did, they are highly skilled and very good at what they do."

"So you plan to train them?" Russell asked.

"No, in fact I think we could learn a few things from them, but first we need to make them feel like one of us," Winston said.

"What would you like me to do sir?" Russell asked.

"Carry on with your current orders, do your best to integrate them into out camp subtly. I don't want them to become suspicious of us. Keep everything as normal as possible," the man ordered.

"Yes sir," Russell replied.

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The five squad mates had spent the last two hours talking back and forth about whatever seemed to come up. They laughed and joked with each other, spending more bonding time, which they seemed to have a lot of. The sky was very dark, almost black as the sun had gone down long ago. The only like they had was the light of the twinkling stars and from the fire in front of them. It was starting to get chilly, but next to the fire it was hardly noticeable. The radiant heat fended off the cold mostly.

"I can't believe this shit," Dylan suddenly said . The others looked up at him.

"How the hell did two weeks go by and we went from doing missions at the FOB (forward operating base), to driving around aimlessly in a tank, to being captured by a bunch of Brits after leaving the FOB because everyone turned into flesh-eating zombies!"

The others just rolled their eyes.

"It's quite a story for sure, if someone were to even imagine this happening they should immediately be sent to a mental hospital," Lauren replied.

"How did I end up in this squad again?" Vegas asked sarcastically.

"If you were in any other squad, you'd be dead," Niles replied, laughing.

"I don't know Vegas, but now would be a good time to start thinking about retirement," Kyle said.

"Nah," Vegas replied, "I wouldn't trade this for anything. This is what I always wanted to be doing, sitting in British custody with you fine people." The rest smiled at him.

They looked over to the main camp. Most of the lights had been turned off, and there were very few fires still burning around. Most of them had already gone to bed they figured. It wouldn't surprise them, they always stayed up late.

"What time is it?" Kyle asked. Vegas looked at his watch, being the only one who regularly wore one. He lit up the screen, reading the time.

"1:33," Vegas replied.

Kyle yawned, continuing to stare into the fire. They had grown quiet with sleepiness.

"Well, that tent isn't going to do us much, so I'm just gonna sleep here," Niles said, laying back into the cool sand. He stretched his legs out, warming his feet by the fire. He put his hands under his head. The sand molded to his form, creating a form that held his body heat close to him. He sighed deeply, relaxing.

The rest of the members followed, laying back to sleep for the night. They stared up at the stars, letting their minds lull them to sleep. It didn't take long, with the calming sounds of the fire and the sheer sound of empty desert.

"Night guys, sleep well, we don't know what we're in for tomorrow," Lauren said.

"Same, night," Kyle replied, followed by the same from everyone.

It was quiet after that, as one by one, they all fell into a comfortable sleep.

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* * *

><p>Ahhhh, so it was the good ol' Brits that found them eh? This is gonna get interesting for sure.<p>

Cheers


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